UC-NRLF 


CO 
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AMERICA 

A  FAMILY  MATTER 


CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK 

1920 


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Copyright,   1920, 

By  Charles  W.  Gould 

(Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America) 

Published  in  June,  1920 

All  Rights  Reserved 

Copyright  under  the  Articles  of  the  Copyright  Convention 

of  the  Pan-American  Republics  and  the 

United  States,  August  11,  1910 


THE   DE   VINNE 


TO  THE  BRETHREN 

G.  H.  G. 
F.    S.  G. 


i>  "tJ  •»  t>  yf  *i 


Gentlemen  : — 

The  writer  plans  to  print  privately  this  paper  and 
to  send  it  to  a  few  men  of  acknowledged  ability  and 
learning. 

The  rule  of  selection  is  simple,  for  these  men  have 
selected  themselves.  Were  not  their  capacity  greater 
than  their  position,  they  would  not  hold  their  posi- 
tion. The  writer  makes  no  apology  for  thrusting 
himself  into  such  a  company,  for  he  well  knows  that 
no  matter  what  the  condition  in  life,  no  matter  how 
unimportant  the  effort,  any  earnest  seeker  will  be 
received  by  such  men  with  courtesy. 

No  claim,  of  course,  is  made  to  original  thought. 
No,  all  the  facts  stated  are  old  and  time-worn  facts, 
all  the  phrases  are  old  and  time-worn  phrases,  all 
the  dates  are  old  and  time-worn  dates,  and  the  simple 
method  has  been  followed  of  putting  two  and  two  to- 
gether. 

Charles  W.  Gould. 

New  York,  1920. 


'A  mongrel  people  never  attain 
real  prosperity." 


MAN  controls  his  own  career,  but  In  common 
with  the  rest  of  the  universe  is  subject  to  law. 
The  greater  his  obedience  to  the  Divine  law,  the 
greater  his  freedom.  The  Divine  law  is  not  only- 
moral — it  is  also  physical.^ 

Man,  so  far  as  his  physical  nature  is  concerned,  is 
an  animal  pure  and  simple.  He  must  conform  to  the 
general  animal  law — he  must  eat — he  must  sleep — he 
must  fulfill  in  all  things  the  needs  of  the  body. 
Never  for  one  instant  during  the  course  of  his  exis- 
tence can  man  escape  from  the  operation  of  law.^ 
The  more  thoroughly  he  understands  the  law  both 
moral  and  physical — the  more  thoroughly  he  obeys 
it,  the  more  splendid  will  be  his  intellectual  and 
spiritual  elevation.  He  is  gifted  with  intelligence 
that  he  may  learn  the  law  in  order  better  to  obey  it. 
The  greater  his  intelligence  the  easier  it  will  be  for 
him  to  ascertain  the  law.^ 

The  close  connection  between  intelligence  and  the 
"grey  matter"  of  the  brain  has  been  demonstrated.^ 
This  "grey  matter"  is  the  physical  basis  and  seat  of 
intellectual  life.    Education  may  improve  the  action 

1  Note  I.  2  Note  2.  ^  Note  3. 

*  Note   4    and    Intellectual    Development    of   Europe,   Draper,    Chapter 
XXIV  (the  whole  chapter). 

CO 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

of  the  "grey  matter,"  but  education  cannot  create  it. 
A  pint  cannot  by  any  known  system  be  educated  to 
contain  more  that  a  pint.  Men  differ  in  mental  ca- 
pacity just  as  they  differ  in  physical  capacity.  In  no 
respect  are  men  created  equal. ^ 

The  researches  of  scientists  instruct  us  that  all 
advancement  comes  through  struggle  and  effort.  It 
makes  no  difference  whether  science  looks  backwards 
a  few  hundreds  or  millions  of  years.  Not  without  un- 
rest and  upheaval  was  the  earth's  crust  formed,  and 
though  the  varieties  of  life  upon  its  surface  to-day  are 
countless  in  number  they  are  but  the  few  survivals  of 
untold  myriads  of  forms  which  were  their  predeces- 
sors and  from  which  they  sprang.^ 

Struggle  and  stress  are  at  the  foundation  of  all  ad- 
vancement. Lethargy  and  stagnation  not  only  mean 
arrested  development,  but  threaten  existence  itself. 

The  physical  frame  of  man  depends  for  its  best 
development  upon  proper  exercise.  The  athlete  is 
the  exponent  of  the  truth  of  this  statement.  The  Holy 
Man  of  India  who  has  held  his  arm  above  his  head 
until  he  can  no  longer  lower  it  is  proof  that  even  the 
muscles  if  idle  become  useless.  Saint  Simeon  Stylites 
did  not  adopt  the  best  method  to  develop  his  body, 
and  he  knew  it.  In  animals  even  the  brain  itself 
shrinks  in  size  from  disuse,  and  it  would  seem  that 
exercise  is  just  as  important  for  the  proper  develop- 
ment of  the  "grey  matter"  and  the  mental  operations 
dependent  upon  it  as  it  is  for  the  mere  muscular  frame. 
Even  in  such  a  transitory  thing  as  a  fit  of  illness  wise 
physicians  often  prescribe  massage,  thus  counteract- 

1  Folkways,  Sumner,  p.  43.  2  Lull,  Evolution  of  the  Earth,  p.  2. 

[2] 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

ing  the  evil  effects  of  protracted  repose  upon  the  hu- 
man system. 

In  a  wild  state  the  mind  of  animals  is  exercised  and 
educated  by  the  struggle  for  food  and  the  struggle  to 
escape  enemies.  It  is  their  education.  Education  is  to 
the  mind  what  exercise  is  to  the  body.  So  far  as  man 
is  concerned,  his  whole  life  is  his  education.^  There 
is  an  absurd  idea  prevalent  to-day  that  what  is  learned 
from  books  forms  the  greater  part  of  man's  education. 
This  is  pressed  to  the  same  extreme  as  were  the 
brutal  methods  of  training  college  boys  for  a  boat 
race  which  were  followed  fifty  years  ago.  Fortu- 
nately for  the  college  boys,  more  scientific  methods 
have  been  adopted  in  preparing  them  to  endure  the 
ordeal  of  the  contest,  but  "book  learning"  is  more  and 
more  thrust  upon  the  world.  It  is  supposed  to  be  the 
makeall  and  the  cureall,  and  great  amounts  of  time 
and  capital  are  wasted  in  the  attempt  to  compel  in- 
capable minds  to  do  impossible  things.  The  doctrine 
that  all  men  are  created  equal  is  doing  its  deadly 
work,  and  no  proper  allowance  is  made  for  individual 
differences  in  mental  capacity. 


While  the  mental  and  the  physical  are  so  inter- 
woven and  so  interdependent  that  it  is  impossible  to 
separate  them,  let  us  begin  by  concentrating  our  at- 
tention so  far  as  possible  on  the  method  of  physical 
improvement  in  animals.^ 

With  animals  physical  capacity  can  be  improved 
by  care  in  breeding.  Man  is  no  exception  to  this  gen- 

1  Adams,  The  Education  of  Henry  Adams,  Folkways,  p.  710.        2  \ote 

l3l 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

eral  animal  law.  Physically  fine  specimens  of  the 
race  of  man  are  just  as  much  the  result  of  careful 
breeding  as  physically  fine  specimens  among  the  ani- 
mals. 

The  law  of  reproduction  has  been  studied  for 
many  years  with  reference  to  animals.  Among  the 
domestic  animals  many  breeds  have  notably  im- 
proved even  within  the  last  hundred  years.  This 
shows  that  the  law  to  some  extent  is  understood. 

A  study  of  the  law  of  physical  improvement  by 
breeding  in  domestic  animals  will  clearly  indicate 
the  course  to  be  followed  in  the  case  of  all  animals,^ 
and  this  includes  man. 

Successful  breeders  of  animals  need  not  necessarily 
be  learned  men.  The  law  in  its  simple  and  funda- 
mental form  is  so  easily  understood  that  good  com- 
mon sense  coupled  with  trained  and  keen  power  of 
observation  is  all  that  is  needed. 

The  law  in  a  general  way  is  this :  To  better  a  par- 
ticular strain,  adhere  strictly  to  that  strain — select 
of  the  particular  strain  the  fine  examples  and  take 
great  care  that  they  be  strong,  vigorous,  healthy 
specimens.    Utterly  reject  weaklings  and  foreigners.^ 

Let  us  take  as  an  example  the  horse,  which  is  said 
to  have  the  least  amount  of  "grey  matter"  in  com- 
parison with  its  size  of  any  of  the  domestic  animals 
and  which  for  practical  use  has  always  been  trained 
or  educated. 

Careful  breeding  of  the  horse  has  produced  re- 
markable results.  Some  of  these  results  have  been 
obtained  in  a  comparatively  brief  period  of  time. 

1  Note  I.  2  Note  2.  • 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

Let  the  breeder,  however,  relax  his  effort,  and  the 
stock  deteriorates,  for  there  is  a  marked  tendency 
among  animals  to  revert  to  type;^  that  is  to  say,  re- 
vert to  the  size,  color  or  other  characteristics  of  the 
original  wild  stock. 

Our  horses  are  supposed  by  many  scientists  to  have 
originated  on  the  Steppes.  The  only  specimens  of 
the  wild  horse  of  the  Steppes  we  have  in  this  country 
are  at  the  New  York  Zoological  Park.  Four  adult 
examples  from  Mongolia  are  exhibited.  They  meas- 
ure at  the  withers  from  eleven  and  one-half  to  twelve 
and  one-half  hands.  A  splendid  thoroughbred  to- 
day will  stand  sixteen  or  seventeen  hands;  that  is 
to  say,  a  foot  and  a  half  or  more  taller  than  the  small- 
est specimen  in  the  Bronx  collection. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Indian  pony  which  ran 
wild  on  the  plains  of  North  and  South  America  was 
descended  from  horses  brought  over  by  the  Span- 
iards, for  we  had  no  horses  on  the  Western  Con- 
tinent. The  mustang  has  distinctly  reverted  toward 
the  type  of  the  Steppes. 

Darwin  saysr  "The  history  of  the  horse  is  lost  in 
antiquity.  Remains  of  this  animal  in  a  domesticated 
condition  have  been  found  in  the  Swiss  Lake  dwell- 
ings belonging  to  the  latter  part  of  the  Stone  Period." 

The  horse  seems  to  have  been  introduced  into 
Egypt  by  the  Hyksos,  and  was  immediately  adopted 
by  those  intelligent  people.^  In  a  short  time  they 
learned  the  manufacture  of  chariots,  and  Pharaoh's 
stable  contained  thousands  of  the  best  horses  to  be 

1  Note.         -  Animals    and    Plants   under    Domestication,    Chapter    II. 
3  About  1550  B.  c.    Breasted,  Egypt,  p.  235. 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

had  in  Asia.  The  Israelites  seem  to  have  been  first 
acquainted  with  the  horse  in  Egypt,  and  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  their  King  in  time  to  come 
was  prophetically  forbidden,  long  before  they  had  a 
King  and  while  they  were  still  in  the  wilderness,  "to 
multiply  horses  to  himself,  or  cause  the  people  to 
return  to  Egypt,  to  the  end  that  he  should  multiply 
horses,"^  Solomon  had  "forty  thousand  stalls  of 
horses  for  his  chariots,"^  which  he  brought  out  of 
Egypt  in  defiance  of  the  divine  command. 

These  horses  seem  to  have  been  very  small  ani- 
mals. Even  as  late  as  the  Parthenon  frieze,  the 
Greek  horse  must  have  been  much  smaller  than  the 
present  Polo  pony.  It  is  thought  we  have  on  Alex- 
ander's sarcophagus  the  picture  of  Bucephalus,  who 
is  of  the  same  size  as  the  Persian  horses  represented 
in  that  curved  marble,  and  they  were  all  very  small, 
the  feet  and  ankles  of  the  riders,  although  riding 
barebacked  and  with  their  legs  bent  up  to  grip  the 
horse,  projecting  below  the  breast  bone  of  the  fiery 
little  steeds.  Homer's  description  of  the  horses  of 
Achilles  is  well  known.  They  were  probably  much 
smaller  than  the  horses  in  Regnault's  celebrated  pic- 
ture. When  Alexander  reached  the  River  Tanais 
and  sent  his  cavalry  across  to  engage  the  Scythians, 
he  was  compelled  apparently  to  withdraw  them^  on 
account  of  the  superiority  of  the  Scythian  horse;  but 
centuries  later,  when  the  Goths  with  Scythian  horses 
made  a  demonstration  against  Constantinople,  some 
Saracen  mercenaries  engaged  by  the  Emperor  Va- 

1  Deut.  XVII,  i6.  3Arrian,  Book   IV,   Chapter   IV. 

2  I  Kings,  IV,  26.    I  Kings,  X,  28. 

:6] 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

lens  defeated  them  on  account  of  the  superiority  of 
the  Arabian  horses/  It  would  seem  that  between 
the  time  of  Alexander,  say  330  B.  C,  and  Valens,  378 
A.  D.,  the  Arabian  horse  had  been  bred  and  cared  for 
better  than  the  Scythian.  The  time  allowed  was 
ample  to  permit  the  improvement. 

As  an  indication  of  the  esteem  in  which  the  horse 
was  held  by  the  Saracens  it  is  to  be  noted  that  after 
the  dearly  bought  victory  on  the  banks  of  the  Yer- 
muk  the  spoil  was  divided:  "An  equal  share  was 
allotted  to  a  soldier  and  to  his  horse,  and  a  double 
portion  was  reserved  for  the  noble  coursers  of  the 
Arabian  breed. "^ 

One  of  the  most  famous  breeds  of  antiquity  was 
the  Cappadocian  horse,^  a  strain  of  which,  the 
Palmatian,  was  particularly  prized.  The  Emperor 
declared  the  owner  a  traitor,  which  he  may  possibly 
have  been,  and  forfeited  his  stud.  All  these  horses 
seem  to  have  been  small. 

From  antiquity  the  horse  has  been  carefully  bred 
and  carefully  trained. 

That  the  results  of  breeding  are  manifest  often  in 
an  exceedingly  short  period  of  time  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  the  great  improvement  in  the  English  thor- 
oughbred has  taken  place  since  the  time  of  Charles 
II.  In  the  time  of  Henry  VIP  a  Statute  with  the 
avowed  purpose  of  improving  the  breed  of  the  Eng- 
lish horse  was  enacted.  Brood  mares  are  mentioned 
in  this  Statute  as  thirteen  hands  high.  To-day  in 
England,  with  the  exception  of  the  Polo  pony  and 

1  Gibbon,  Chapter  XXVI.  3  Gibbon,  Chapter  XVII. 

2  Gibbon,  Chapter  LI,  p.  407.  *  Henry  VII,   1485  A.D. 

C7] 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

the  Hackney  pony,  an  animal  thirteen  hands  high 
would  be  one  hand  below  the  maximum  for  ponies, 
which  is  fourteen  hands.  So  the  English  brood 
mare  mentioned  in  the  Statute  is  four  inches  smaller 
than  the  present  maximum  general  standard  for 
ponies  in  England,  and  would  be  classed  as  a  j^ony. 
Godolphin  was  introduced  into  the  English  stud 
about  1727.  He  was  a  Barb,  not  an  Arabian,  and  the 
Barbs  are  larger  than  the  Arabian  horse.  His  height 
is  given  at  fifteen  hands.  One  of  his  descendants,  and 
a  famous  one,  Autocrat,  in  1822  measured  sixteen  and 
one-half  hands;  thus  Autocrat  was  six  inches  taller 
than  his  progenitor,  and  was  separated  from  him  by 
an  interval  of  only  one  hundred  years. 

"The  pedigree  of  a  race  horse  is  of  more  value  in 
judging  of  its  probable  success  than  its  appearance: 
'King  Herod'  gained  in  prizes  201,505/.  Sterling  and 
begot  497  winners;  'Eclipse'  begot  334  winners."^ 

"The  English  race  horse  is  known  to  have  pro- 
ceeded from  the  commingled  blood  of  Arabs,  Turks 
and  Barbs,^  but  selection  and  training  (education) 
have  together  made  him  a  very  different  animal  from 
his  parent  stock.  The  improvement  is  so  marked 
that  in  running  for  the  Goodwood  Cup,  'the  first 
descendants  of  Arabian,  Turkish  and  Persian  horses 
are  allowed  a  discount  of  18  pounds  weight  and  when 
both  parents  are  of  these  countries,  a  discount  of  36 
pounds.  No  instance  has  ever  occurred  of  a  three- 
part  bred  horse  {i.e.,  a  horse  one  of  whose  grand- 

1  Darwin,  Animals  and  Plants  under  Domestication,  Vol.  I,  p.  51. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  54.  Furthermore  it  must  be  noted  that  the  English  horse, 
through  Spanish  horses,  had  been  infused  with  Arabian  blood  at  least  as 
early  as  Edward  I,  c.  1300.  Green,  History  of  English  People,  Vol.  I, 
p.  325. 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

parents  was  of  impure  blood)  saving  his  distance 
in  running  two  miles  with  thoroughbred  racers.'  " 

With  respect  to  intelligence,  the  domestic  horse 
has  gradually  acquired  not  only  size  and  power,  but 
mentality  enough  to  be  easily  educated,  that  is  to  say, 
broken.  The  wild  horse  of  the  Steppes  cannot  be 
broken. 

Many  instances  might  be  cited  to  show  the  in- 
telligence which  the  horse  has  gained  during  all 
these  centuries  of  contact  with  man.  Our  own  fire 
horses  are  splendid  animals. 

"The  last  horses  purchased  were  selected  because 
they  were  of  good  conformation,  were  sound,  tract- 
able and  intelligent.  They  were  sent  to  the  train- 
ing stables,  where  they  were  tried  in  harness  and 
kept  in  the  stables  for  a  few  days  to  determine  their 
physical  condition,  their  temperature,  etc.  If  satis- 
factory, they  were  then  tentatively  accepted.  The 
horses  were  then  assigned  to  fire  companies  for  a 
further  trial  in  order  to  determine  their  intelligence 
and  to  see  whether  or  not  they  could  with  prompt- 
ness take  their  places  under  the  harness.  .  .  .  About 
7%  of  them  lacked  intelligence."^ 

Had  the  horse  remained  as  stupid  as  his  original 
progenitor  he  would  have  been  utterly  unable  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  the  Fire  Department,  and 
instead  of  the  moment  or  two  needed  to  start  the  fire 
engine  in  movement,  it  would  have  taken  a  much 
longer  time,  and  thus  allowed  the  fire  to  get  greater 
headway  and  made  it  more  difficult  to  extinguish. 

On  the  other  hand,  let  us  take  an  instance  where 

1  Letter,  May  21,  1919,  Fire  Commissioner  Thomas  J.  Drennan. 

191 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

breeding  has  not  been  accompanied  by  training.  The 
domesticated  rabbit  is  generally  larger  and  heavier 
than  the  wild  rabbit.  It  is  relieved  from  the  educat- 
ing effect  of  being  compelled  to  be  on  the  alert 
against  hostile  attack  and  is  deprived  of  the  edu- 
cating effect  of  hunting  for  its  own  food.  The  result 
is  that  its  bony  brain  case  is  actually  smaller  in  con- 
tent than  that  of  the  wild  rabbit.^ 

It  would  seem  therefore  that  for  the  improvement 
of  the  physical  and  the  mental  in  animals  not  only 
must  a  pure  healthy  stock  be  secured,  but  also  there 
must  be  continual  mental  exercise  or  striving  if  the 
mind  is  to  be  improved  as  well  as  the  body;  the 
necessary  stimulant  to  the  mind  being  furnished  by 
education  either  in  the  strenuous  conditions  of  life  in 
the  wild  state,  which  tend  to  develop  mental  alert- 
ness, or  by  the  direct  education  of  the  animal  by  man. 

We  have  taken  almost  the  least  intelligent  of  the 
domestic  animals.  In  the  dark  backward  and  abysm 
of  time  thousands  of  years  ago  the  first  little  wild 
horse  was  broken.  Since  that  time  not  only  has  the 
physical  stature  of  the  horse  been  improved,  but 
small  as  his  "grey  matter"  is  in  comparison  with  his 
bulk,  it  has  been  more  and  more  developed  until  to- 
day the  real  lover  of  a  good  horse  loves  him  not  only 
for  his  beauty  but  for  his  intelligence,  which  is  often 
kindly  and  sympathetic. 

It  would  seem  therefore  that  even  the  compara- 
tively stupid  horse  has  been  improved  both  phys- 
ically and  mentally^  by  breeding  and  persistent  edu- 

1  Darwin,  Animals  and  Plants  under  Domestication,  Vol.  II,  p.  298. 

2  Note. 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

cation,  and  it  would  seem  also  that  the  careful  observ- 
ance of  the  same  methods  in  all  animals,  including 
man,  would  lead  not  only  to  the  improvement  of  the 
physical  condition,  but  also  to  the  improvement  of 
mental  capacity;  in  other  words,  that  the  amount 
of  "grey  matter"  or  its  quality,  or  both,  can  be  culti- 
vated even  as  the  physical  frame  with  which  it  is  in- 
terwoven and  with  which  it  doth  exist  and  cease  to  be 
has  been  bettered  in  the  past  and  can  be  bettered  in 
the  future. 

So  far  as  is  known  at  present,  there  is  no  limit^  to 
the  intellectual  heights  to  which  man  can  rise.  No 
law  has  been  discovered  which  limits  him  to  the  in- 
telligence of  a  Shakespeare,  a  Phidias,  or  an  Alex- 
ander. The  gulf  fixed  between  the  incapacity  of  the 
Australian  black  and  the  all-comprehending  mind  of 
Aristotle  suggests  a  still  greater  gulf  beyond  and 
above  Aristotelian  intelligence.  Such  is  the  lofty 
elevation  to  which  man  may  aspire. 

But  to  rise  to  higher  planes  of  mental  capacity  man 
must  unceasingly  strive.  He  can  do  so  only  by  thor- 
oughly learning  and  obeying  the  natural  law  in  this 
behalf  enacted.  Divine  Providence  has  placed  the 
means  in  man's  hand,  but  man  must  do  the  work. 
Divine  Providence  will  not  do  the  work  for  him. 
On  the  contrary,  man  is  a  free  agent.  He  can  elevate 
or  degrade  himself.  "In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt 
thou  eat  bread, "^  was  not  spoken  of  bread  alone.  The 
toil  and  struggle  for  achievement  are  as  necessary 
for  mental  as  for  physical  well-being  and  improve- 
ment. 

1  Note.  2  Genesis  III,  19. 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

While  man  has  bred  animals  for  fleetness,  size, 
wool,  milk,  he  has  never  deliberately  bred  any  ani- 
mal for  broad  and  general  intelligence,^  and  this 
statement  includes  man  himself.  This  is  indeed 
strange,  for  of  all  animals  he  is  born  the  most  help- 
less. The  chicken  can  fend  for  itself  almost  as  soon 
as  it  breaks  the  shell,  but  man  requires  a  long  period 
of  careful  attention  to  survive  at  all.  The  little  baby 
has  no  weapons  and  no  wit;  needs  not  days  nor  weeks 
but  years  of  care.  Very,  very  slowly  his  mind  devel- 
ops and  it  seems  as  if  the  greater  the  brain  power 
the  more  slowly  it  reaches  its  full  capacity.  The 
pickaninny  at  three  or  four  years  is  often  more 
alert  than  the  white  child.  Kipling,^  a  most 
acute  observer,  remarks  upon  the  precocious  ability 
of  the  Eurasian,  that  cross  between  the  Portu- 
guese and  the  native  in  India.  Up  to  the  age  of  four- 
teen or  fifteen  years  the  lad's  quickness  in  school  is 
frequently  notable,  but  then  the  limited  energy  of  the 
"grey  matter"  is  exhausted  and  the  comparatively 
bright  child  becomes  the  inert,  incapable  half-caste 
man.  Driving  energy  is  not  found  in  heart  or  lungs 
but  in  the  wonderful  generator  protected  by  the 
strong  box  of  the  skull.  No  matter  how  precocious 
the  Stone  Age  child  may  have  been,  the  term  for  care 
and  tending  must  have  been  protracted,  and  during 
all  this  time  the  parents  were  the  guardians — guard- 
ians born  also  without  weapons  and  no  match  in  phys- 
ical strength  for  the  huge  cave  bear,  the  wild  bull 
and  the  mammoth.  Their  survival  depended  entirely 
upon  their  superior  intelligence.     Upon  this  only 

1  Memories,  Galton,  p.  318.  2Kim. 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

could  they  rely  in  their  constant  contests  with  beasts 
born  with  fangs,  claws,  horns  and  tusks.  It  is  matter 
of  wonderment  that  man  has  managed  to  survive. 
Not  one  of  us  to-day  under  such  conditions,  even  if 
without  the  added  care  of  wife  and  family,  could 
remain  alive  a  month,  although  the  Socialistic  "Ban- 
quet of  Nature"  was  served  every  day  without  money 
and  without  price.  It  is  clear  therefore  that  from 
times  the  most  remote  man  has  depended  for  his 
very  existence  upon  his  brains.  One  would  think 
that  the  experience  of  thousands  and  thousands  of 
years  would  have  given  him  innate,  unspeakable  re- 
spect for  mental  power.  On  the  contrary,  not  only 
has  man  refused  in  his  marriage  customs  to  consider 
intelligently  race  improvement,  physical  and  mental, 
but  the  amazing  fact  is  that  large  numbers  of  the 
human  race  distrust  and  dislike  intelligence.^  In 
France  during  the  Revolution  the  terrorists — in  Rus- 
sia the  Bolsheviki  murdered  it  on  sight,  and  with 
us  to-day  it  is  rare  to  find  men  of  commanding  intel- 
ligence elected  to  public  office.  Mediocrity  prefers 
mediocrity,  and  among  us  the  gifted  man  is  rarely 
politically  popular. 

So  far  as  man  is  concerned,  he  has  expended  more 
effort  to  keep  his  race  stupid  than  to  make  it  intel- 
ligent. It  can  be  distinctly  stated  that  from  time  to 
time  he  has  been  deliberately  hostile  to  intellectual 
development,  and  great  numbers  of  men  are  so  yet. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  can  also  be  truly  stated  that 
from  time  to  time  a  particular  class  of  men  have 
taken  measures  to  improve  the  intellectual  capacity 

1  Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  p.  348. 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

of  their  class,  but  have  never  done  so  save  by  indirec- 
tion and  accident;  for  the  steps  they  took  had  another 
and  a  definite  object  in  view,  and  the  improvement 
in  the  mental  capacity  of  that  particular  strain  was 
not  due  to  deliberate  purpose,  but  was  a  mere  by- 
product of  their  customs  and  their  laws. 

Let  us  consider  one  of  the  many  efforts  to  oppress 
intelligence. 

Long  before  civilization  began,  slavery  was ;  indeed 
it  is  claimed  that  the  institution  of  slavery  lies  at  the 
bottom  of  civilization,  for  it  was  not  until  man  ob- 
tained cheap  power  that  man  could  obtain  a  sufficient 
and  regular  food  supply  to  insure  him  the  leisure  that 
enabled  him  to  develop  the  useful  arts.  It  is  pointed 
out  that  slavery  continued  to  exist  until  steam  and 
water  power  were  found  to  be  cheaper,^  and  when 
slave  labor  ceased  to  be  able  to  compete,  slave  labor 
ceased  to  be. 

In  former  times  a  great  part  of  mankind  was  en- 
slaved. The  slave  owner  as  a  rule  desired  to  keep 
the  slave  in  ignorance.  The  more  like  an  animal  he 
was,  the  better.  For  the  most  part,  any  attempt  to 
educate  slaves  was  absolutely  forbidden.  In  our  own 
country,  before  the  Civil  War,  enthusiasts  who  en- 
deavored to  teach  the  Southern  negro  to  read  and 
write  were  driven  from  the  community."  For  ages 
therefore  a  great  part  of  mankind  was  continually 
enslaved  and  deliberately  brutalized.  The  slow 
change  from  servitude  to  freedom  may  be  said  to 
have  begun  in  Europe  about  the  year  looo  A.  D.,  when 
Christians  ceased  to  hold  Christians  as  slaves,  al- 

1  Sumner,  Folkways,  p.  274.  ^Lgcky,  Rationalism,  Vol.  II,  p.  254. 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

though  they  considered  it  perfectly  right  to  own 
infidels  and  negroes. 

As  steam  power  had  not  been  applied  to  the  culti- 
vation of  crops,  slavery  lingered  longer  as  a  rule  in 
agricultural  communities  than  it  did  elsewhere.  The 
dread  result  menaces  us  all  to-day.  The  serf  was 
never  even  nominally  freed  in  Russia  until  1861. 
The  serf  never  really  knew  freedom. 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  for  thousands  of  years  a 
large  class  in  every  community  was  not  only  habitu- 
ally deprived  so  far  as  possible  of  any  opportunity 
to  improve  its  mental  faculty,  but  was  thrust  down 
deliberately  and  constantly  to  the  level  of  the  beast. 

The  Greeks  and  Romans  did  this  knowingly.  The 
famous  lines  of  Homer,  "The  Gods  take  half  the 
worth  away  when  once  they  make  man  slave,"^  were 
sung  for  centuries  from  Colchis  to  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules. 

During  all  these  ages,  however,  there  was  a  domi- 
nant class.  The  fortunes  of  war  and  other  causes 
frequently  made  any  particular  dominant  class  in  its 
turn  a  servile  class.  There  never  has  been  in  the 
course  of  the  world  a  continuously  dominant  class. 
Even  had  each  dominant  class  in  turn  endeavored  in- 
telligently to  perpetuate  the  race,  with  a  view  to 
improving  its  intellectual  power,  that  line  of  im- 
provement would  have  been  continually  broken 
down  by  the  same  disaster  which  subjected  the  class 
itself  to  servitude. 

There  was  another  evil  attendant  upon  slavery. 
Often  the  slaves  were  of  a  different  stock,  and  often, 

1  Odyssey,  Book  XVII,  line  392. 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

too,  the  stock  was  of  a  lower  grade  of  humanity. 
This  baser  stock,  forced  into  close  contact  and  inter- 
course with  the  native  population,  led  to  mixed 
marriages  and  the  consequent  dilution  and  weak- 
ening of  the  blood.  This  has  happened  again  and 
again  and  has  broken  down  great  empires.  It  is  in 
great  measure  the  explanation  of  the  fall  of  Egypt 
and  the  fall  of  Rome.  One  historian  speaks  of  the 
Byzantine  emperors  as  ruling  over  a  race  of  mon- 
grels. 

Our  importation  of  multitudes  of  ignorant  and 
utterly  alien  laborers  will,  among  other  calamities 
to  our  body  politic,  degrade  it.^  But  while  we 
should  be  warned  in  time  and  take  proper  measures 
to  control  this  evil,  and  do  so  instantly,  our  position  is 
still  strong,  for  there  are  yet  left  in  America  fifty 
million  people  the  greater  part  of  whom  can  trace 
their  ancestry  to  Colonial  days  before  pollution  be- 
gan, and  it  behooves  us  to  disregard  every  temptation, 
whether  it  be  the  threadbare  plea  of  the  need  for 
cheap  labor  to  develop  our  great  resources,  or  the 
equally  threadbare  sentimentality  which  urges  us  to 
destroy  ourselves  under  the  specious  and  false  assur- 
ance that  out  of  mongrelism  will  arise  perhaps  some 
thousands  of  years  hence  a  better  strain.  The  labor 
thus  imported  will  prove  the  most  expensive  ever  em- 
ployed, for  we  shall  pay  its  wages  in  our  race  life's 
blood.  The  promised  elevation  or  uplift  of  the  world 
shall  merely  result  in  our  own  degradation,  for  we 
will  open  Pandora's  box  and  when  its  untold  evils 
have  rushed  out  and  become  wide-spread,  happy  in- 

1  Note. 

[■6: 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

deed  shall  we  be  if,  like  Pandora,  we  have  still  left 
with  us  hope. 

Why  fly  in  the  face  of  the  great  natural  law? 
Why  not  proceed  along  the  path  of  least  resistance? 
The  man  who  would  introduce  the  Indian  pony  into 
his  racing  stable  for  the  purpose  of  producing  the 
Derby  winner  would  be  committed  by  loving  friends 
to  an  insane  asylum.  Shall  we  permit  ignorant  and 
emotional  fanatics  to  persuade  us  to  throw  away  our 
birthright  and  become  like  the  fellaheen  of  Egypt, 
incapable,  inert,  demanding  guidance  from  the  world 
instead  of  conferring  benefits  upon  it? 

Moreover,  there  is  another  point  of  view  which 
should  be  considered.  It  is  all  very  well  for  savages 
to  give  themselves  a  name  which,  being  translated, 
signifies  "men"  or  "the  men,"  and  which  implies  that 
all  the  surrounding  tribes  are  inferior  beings  and 
not  even  to  be  considered  as  men.^  But  for  enlight- 
ened and  civilized  people  to  look  down  upon  other 
races  as  altogether  and  in  every  respect  inferior, 
evinces  the  narrow-mindedness  of  the  savage  rather 
than  the  broad-minded  view  of  educated  intelligence. 
It  has  taken  thousands  and  thousands  of  years  to  pro- 
duce each  great  race  and  no  one  can  deny  that  they 
differ  from  each  other  in  material  points,  and  even 
among  nations  or  yet  smaller  subdivisions  of  the  sarne 
race  the  differences  are  often  so  marked  that  they  can 
be  detected  at  a  glance.  In  each  case  we  find  vary- 
ing characteristics,  many  of  which  are  extremely  val- 
uable, and  each  valuable  characteristic  should  be 
prized  'knd  nurtured  by  its  possessors.     It  would  be 

1  Folkways,  p.  14. 

C173 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

worse  than  folly  to  attempt  to  blot  out  such  good 
qualities  and  melt  them  down  into  a  homogeneous 
and  characterless  mass.  It  would  indeed  be  folly- 
sublimated  into  madness. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  a  more  cheerful  view.  Let  us 
glance  for  a  moment  at  an  instance  where  ability  was 
bred  and  fostered.  Whether  this  was  accomplished 
by  accident  or  design  makes  no  difference.  The  re- 
sult is  all-important. 

For  centuries  the  Egyptian,  isolated  not  only  by 
fear  and  deserts  but  also  by  his  rigid  exclusion  of 
foreigners  and  by  his  own  inherent  and  consequent 
power  to  repel  invasion,  kept  his  blood  uncontam- 
inated. 

Of  his  condition  of  savagery  we  know  nothing. 
We  first  encounter  him  as  he  is  emerging  from  bar- 
barism. Already  he  weaves,  makes  and  glazes  pot- 
tery, and  his  flint  knives  are  of  such  exquisite  work- 
manship that  their  like  cannot  be  reproduced  to-day. 
By  science  helped,  we  can  watch  him  as  he  mounts 
the  steps  of  civilization  until  in  elegance  and  refine- 
ment of  living  in  art  and  in  religion  (Ikhnaton)  he 
attains  great  heights  and  in  power  becomes  supreme. 
His  achievement  lies  at  the  bottom  of  our  civiliza- 
tion to-day,  and  in  many  ways,  now  as  in  the  days  of 
old,  sages  look  to  Egypt  for  their  lore. 

What  is  this  curious  thing  called  Race?^  Science 
insists  that  all  mankind  are  really  one,  and  yet  the 

1  Note. 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

differences  among  men  are  great — not  only  color, 
size,  and  outward  appearance,  but  even  the  solid 
bone,  the  very  frame  on  w^hich  the  body  is  built, 
varies. 

Climatic  influence  is  recognized  as  all-important, 
but  its  effect  on  people  of  different  races  to-day  is  not 
uniform,  however  it  may  have  wrought  in  the  past. 

The  blue-eyed  white  man  finds  intolerable  those 
conditions  on  which  the  negro  and  Dravidian  do 
well.  The  Chinese  live  with  seeming  indifference  in 
the  hot,  cold  or  temperate  zone. 

Select  an  example  from  each,  the  negro,  the 
Chinese  and  the  white,  and  for  twenty  years  feed 
them  upon  the  same  food,  give  them  the  same  drink, 
and  each  remains  unchanged.  The  same  meats  and 
vegetables  are  consumed  and  yet  suffer  different 
transformations,  as  the  same  pasture  turns  the  thor- 
oughbred colt  into  the  race  horse,  while  at  the  same 
time  turning  the  Clydesdale  into  a  slow  ponderous 
machine. 

Science  tells  us  that  races  of  men  have  come  and 
gone  on  this  earth  for  perhaps  five  hundred  thousand 
years,  and  traces  in  a  vague  way  (for  it  yet  lacks 
facts)  change  and  development,  loss  and  gain  in  hu- 
manity, and  indicates  roughly  during  the  same  period 
grave  alterations  in  climate  and  consequent  changes 
in  food  supply  and  latterly  in  the  method  of  its  prep- 
aration^ for  human  consumption.  As  yet  it  can  say 
no  definite  word  as  to  the  causes  of  the  marked  dif- 
ference in  men. 

Some  general  matters  seem  to  be  determined.    For 

»  Note. 

ni93 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

instance,  for  the  production  of  the  White  Race  a 
place  of  abode  for  ages  in  the  Temperate  Zone; 
segregation  of  this  stock  from  other  peoples,  thus 
conserving  race  purity;  a  consequent  measurable 
uniformity  of  self-expression  leading  to  a  corre- 
sponding conformity  of  ideas  and  aspirations,  for 
racial  characteristics  are  not  only  physical  but  also 
mental. 

It  must  be  borne  in  on  the  mind  that  this  uniform- 
ity and  conformity  of  ideas  and  aspirations  was  cul- 
tivated and  enforced  for  ages:  for  thousands  of  years 
it  was  bred  in  the  bone.  The  whole  race  throbbed 
with  the  same  emotions,  pulsated  with  the  same  ideas 
and  gradually  came  to  have,  as  it  were,  a  race  life, 
a  peculiar  and  self-created  aggregate  individuality 
— attuned  to  vibrate  in  harmony  and  unison  through- 
out the  mass,  and  where  developed  and  carried  for- 
ward on  any  particular  line,  becoming  a  racial 
characteristic  or  a  racial  tendency.  Of  course  the 
phrase  "aggregate  individuality"  is  but  an  attempt 
to  express  the  result.  It  is  hard  to  make  real — to  body 
forth  in  speech — that  which  is  vital  but  yet  impal- 
pable. Perhaps  it  would  be  best  to  call  attention  to 
one  or  two  race  manifestations  and  thus  more  clearly 
indicate  the  meaning. 

The  White  Race  threw  off  many  branches,  and  in 
each  case,  wherever  it  went,  became  the  dominant 
class.  It  is  a  curious  fact  and  one  which  has  never 
been  explained  that  about  the  year  500  B.  C.  in 
India,  in  Persia,  in  Athens  and  in  Rome  this  race 
evinced  remarkable  energy.  There  could  have  been 
no  concerted  action,  for  there  seems  to  have  been 

1:20] 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

little  or  no  intercommunication.  Then  again  each 
manifestation  was  original,  betraying  local  charac- 
teristics. In  three  instances  the  movement  was 
political :  while  each  of  these  cases  was  differentiated 
from  the  other  two,  all  three  were  along  political 
lines,  and  the  fact  that  the  movement  took  place  at  the 
same  time  in  widely  separated  regions  and  among 
people  who  had  parted  from  each  other  ages  before, 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  fundamental  causes 
which  produced  these  various  results  are  to  be 
looked  for  while  they  were  still  united  and  before 
the  different  tribes  had  emigrated  to  different  lands 
— as  if  the  impulse  had  been  given  before  the  sepa- 
ration and  had  gone  as  a  living  principle  with  each 
separate  division  to  each  new  home.  Without  such 
common  source  of  origin  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
explain  a  uniformity  of  action  so  synchronous  in 
time  and  so  widely  parted  in  space. 

A  little  before  500  B.  C,  the  Medes  and  Persians, 
not  thoroughly  in  accord,  were  hovering  on  the  con- 
fines of  the  Semitic  (Assyrian)  Empire.'  In  the 
year  538  B.  C.  they  were  united  under  Cyrus  the 
Great,  and  immediately  conquered  Mesopotamia 
and  shortly  thereafter  Egypt.  They  forthwith  reor- 
ganized the  government — for  they  were  builders,  not 
destroyers — and  one  of  the  strange  things  about  this 
conquest  is  that  although  they  entered  the  country  as 
barbarians  and  were  surrounded  by  the  magnificent 
structures  of  Semitic  art,  they  preferred  the  Egyp- 
tian art,  and  forthwith  in  great  measure  adopted  it 
and  made  it  their  own — in  this  respect  following  the 

1  Historj'  of  Art  in  Persia,  Perrot  and  Chipiez,  p.  4. 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

example  of  the  Greeks,  whose  art  is  a  continuation 
and  a  development  of  that  of  Egypt. 

It  is  principally,  however,  to  be  noted  that  the  gov- 
ernment they  introduced  was  an  immense  improve- 
ment on  the  Semitic  method;  for,  while  despotic  in 
form,  it  still  breathed  the  free  spirit  of  the  North  and 
the  imperious  mandate  of  the  great  King  yields  be- 
fore the  "law  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  which 
altereth  not."^ 

About  the  year  510  B.  c.  the  same  White  Race  in 
Athens,  imbued  by  the  same  free  spirit  which  in  com- 
mon with  the  Persians  it  brought  from  its  northern 
home,  overthrows  the  tyrants  and  establishes  a 
democracy,  a  form  of  government  absolutely  new  in 
the  history  of  the  world. 

In  the  same  year  the  same  race  in  Rome  rises 
against  foreign  domination,  expels  the  Tarquins  and 
founds  a  republic — a  form  of  government  not  only 
differing  from  the  others  but  also  absolutely  novel. 

There  is  another  remarkable  and  almost  contem- 
poraneous event:  A  thousand  years  before,^  wave 
upon  wave  of  the  same  White  Race  had  passed  into 
India  and  subdued  it,  had  instituted  and  developed 
their  own  form  of  government  and  their  own  laws, 
had  passed  through  the  various  stages  of  political 
life  long  in  advance  of  that  portion  of  the  race  which 
had  later  moved  down  to  Persia,  Greece  and  Rome. 
But  these  people,  so  far  ahead. of  and  so  far  divided 
from  their  Western  kinsfolk,  still  seem  to  have  re- 
tained the  rhythm  and  harmonious  forward  move- 
ment of  the  great  race  life  and  to  have  developed 

1  Daniel,  VI,  8.  SjjooB.C. 

1:223 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

about  the  same  period,  500  B.  C,  a  manifestation  a 
far  stage  beyond  mere  politics. 

Buddha,  whose  ancestors  had  participated  in  the 
conquest  of  India,  is  supposed  to  have  begun  his 
religious  life  about  the  year  530  B.  C.  He  laid  aside 
his  rank  and  wealth  and  family  and  forgot  all  those 
traditions  of  caste  and  lordship  which  a  thousand 
years  of  domination  had  introduced  among  his 
people.  He  reverted  at  once  to  simpler  methods. 
Under  his  dispensation,  any  man  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest  might  enter  the  army  of  the  priesthood, 
thus  entirely  changing  the  former  stringent  rule 
which  placed  the  order  of  priesthood  in  the  hands  of 
the  Brahmins;  and  here  again  we  have  a  manifesta- 
tion of  the  survival  of  the  free  spirit  of  the  North 
which  the  habits  and  customs  and  love  of  power  of 
a  millennium  could  not  subdue. 

As  to  the  purity  and  elevation  of  his  ideas  it  is  un- 
necessary to  speak.  His  was  a  religion  of  gentleness 
and  love  and  met  the  usual  persecution.  It  survived 
to  be  the  hope  and  consolation  of  multitudes  innu- 
merable and  still  to  sustain  and  cheer,  it  is  said,  one 
quarter  of  all  humanity. 

Such  an  epoch  as  that  of  the  end  of  the  VI  cen- 
tury B.  C.  never  occurred  before  nor  since.  Its  vast 
influence  on  the  whole  world  in  varying  directions 
seems  never  to  have  been  appreciated.  That  in  one 
form  and  another  it  presented  ideas  which  to-day 
dominate  mankind  cannot  be  denied.  That  these 
ideas,  differing  as  they  did,  contained  more  than  one 
fundamental  thought  in  common  is  also  true,  and 
appearing  at  the  same   time  in  widely  separated 

1:231 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

regions,  they  show  synchronous  race  manifestations 
which  cannot  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for  save  as 
the  varying  but  rhythmical  pulsation  of  race  life, 
whose  throb  was  that  of  the  life  of  the  united  people 
before  they  knew  parting  and  division.^ 

In  this  explanation  there  is  nothing  mystical, 
nothing  strange.  Every  community  develops  its  own 
peculiarities,  and  the  greater  its  seclusion  from  the 
rest  of  the  world  and  the  longer  the  time  this  seclu- 
sion continues,  the  more  marked,  the  more  deeply 
implanted  and  the  more  enduring  are  its  character- 
istics. Thousands  of  years  were  needed  to  establish 
the  strain  of  large-limbed,  light-haired,  long-headed 
men.  Is  it  possible  that  certain  mental  processes 
should  not  also  have  become  to  a  certain  extent  stabil- 
ized? Such  mental  traits  are  in  point  of  fact  almost 
ineradicable.  To  men  brought  up  for  generations  in 
the  wild  free  life,  individual  liberty  must  have 
become  dear,  and  small  wonder  if  it  endures  in  dif- 
ferent lands  and  under  different  skies.  The  wonder, 
after  all,  is  not  that  people  of  the  same  race  develop 
similar  bodies  and  similar  thoughts,  but  that  they 
develop  with  so  many  individual  differences — in 
point  of  fact,  variation  in  similitude  is  constant  mat- 
ter of  amazement. 


When  time  began  to  be  recorded  it  began  by  the 
recording  of  the  effort  to  maintain  race  purity, — 
never,  as  has  been  said,  for  the  direct  and  sole  pur- 

1  See  a  beautiful  description  of  continued  race  life:  Green,  History  of 
English  People,  Vol.  I,  p.  34. 


1:24] 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

pose  of  increasing  mental  power,  though  this  has 
almost  invariably  been  the  result,  but  for  the  pur- 
pose, in  almost  every  instance,  of  obtaining  or  main- 
taining political  power.  Successful  invaders  have 
ever  been  few  in  number  compared  with  the  mass 
they  subdued.  Usually  in  olden  times  they  brought 
their  families^  with  them  and  invariably  established 
rules  intended  to  make  and  keep  them  and  theirs  a 
distinct  and  dominant  class.  The  methods  varied 
but  the  result  aimed  at  was  always  the  same.  In 
India,  caste — in  Persia,  the  noble — in  Athens,  the 
citizen — in  Rome,  the  patrician — in  later  days,  the 
nobility  of  all  Europe,  and  by  the  segregation  and 
solidarity  of  race,  power  was  secured  and  power  was 
transmitted. 

But  this  is  not  all.  We  must  not  think  for  a  mo- 
ment that  mere  brute  force  sufficed.  With  this  as  a 
sole  reliance  how  could  the  few  continuously  hold 
down  the  many?  No,  the  force  which  sustained  con- 
tinuous domination  by  the  few  was  mental. 

Usually  the  lower  class  of  the  invaders  gradually 
formed  a  middle  class  between  the  lords  and  the 
serfs,  a  daysman — a  mediator,  as  it  were,  with  a  hand 
on  the  shoulder  of  each.  Wherever  this  occurred  it 
gave  stability  to  the  government;  for  as  wealth 
increased  and  civilization  advanced  the  middle  class 
slowly  became  more  numerous,  intelligence  became 
more  diffused  and  from  this  middle  class  were  drawn 
elements  to  perpetuate  and  sustain  the  governing 
body,  for  each  added  unit  of  trust  and  reliance  tended 
to  broaden  its  base  of  support  and  to  fundamentally 

1  Prescott  Robertson,  Charles  V,  Chapter  I,  p.  8. 

1:253 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

Strengthen  it,  while  unfortunate  members  of  the  no- 
bility plunged  downward  in  the  social  grade.^ 

A  story  is  told  that  a  few  years  ago  a  descendant 
of  the  Plantagenets  was  a  butcher  in  a  London 
suburb.^ 

Only  in  recent  times  have  historians  condescended 
to  write  histories  which  take  notice  of  the  lower 
ranks  of  society  and  sympathetically  discuss  the 
situation,  the  sufferings  and  the  advancement  or 
retrogression  of  the  people.  Not  yet  has  enough 
stress  been  laid  upon  the  importance  of  the  story  of 
the  middle  class.  Wherever  this  class  has  grown  in 
numbers  and  enlightenment,  the  course  of  history  has 
been  upward.  Where  this  class  has  been  depressed, 
the  tale  is  a  tale  of  misfortune  and  misery,  and  where 
this  class  has  been  destroyed,  the  tale  has  not  only  lost 
its  interest  and  significance,  but  has  soon  ended.  The 
importance  of  the  middle  class  cannot  be  overesti- 
mated. At  about  the  same  time  in  two  favored  spots 
control  and  sway  were  thrust  upon  it.^  It  was  for  a 
brief  space  only.  Its  government  was  the  best,  most 
moderate,  most  just  ever  known.  It  is  passing,  and  it 
is  a  question  if  its  successor  will  better  it  or  not. 

The  curve  of  history  of  which  Bunsen  speaks  and 
to  which  Draper  alludes  clearly  indicates  a  period 
before  us  now  of  stress  and  strain — another  great 
movement  in  the  human  drama  to  which  this  intoler- 
able war  is  but  the  prelude. 

There  is  one  question  which  interests  all  men  alike. 
It  is  the  most  important  question  which  can  be  con- 

^  Note.  2  Folkways,  §  164.  ^Foik^gyg^   §167. 

1:263 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

sidered  by  the  human  race.  It  is  the  question  of 
mankind's  self-perpetuation.^  All  concede  that  the 
study  of  the  best  method  for  the  reproduction  of 
humanity  is  beyond  all  other  study  important.  It 
lies  not  only  at  the  bottom  of  empire,  sway  and 
dominion,  but  of  human  progress — human  happiness. 

The  importance  of  keeping  the  strain  pure  is  para- 
mount. It  is  the  fundamental  rule.  Many  instances 
are  given  by  Darwin-  of  the  strong  tendency  in 
hybrids  to  revert,  and  thus  their  offspring  lose  the 
benefit  of  the  good  traits  which  careful  selection  in 
breeding  had  given  their  respective  parents.  His  ex- 
planation is  thatthoughthe  baser  qualities  are  carried 
along  from  parents  to  offspring  they  are  dominated 
by  the  good  qualities  and  remain  latent,  but  that  in 
the  hybrid  the  baser  qualities  are  evoked — are  liber- 
ated from  the  control  of  the  better  qualities, — and  the 
stock  at  once  deteriorates;  He  draws  special  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  deterioration  is  not  limited  to 
physical  qualities.  He  refers  to  the  fact  that  mules 
are  notorious  for  obstinacy  and  vice  and  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  statement  so  frequently  made  by  travellers 
in  all  parts  of  the  world,  "on  the  degraded  state  and 
savage  disposition  of  cross  races  of  man. 

"Many  years  ago  before  I  had  a  thought  of  the  pres- 
ent subject  I  was  struck  with  the  fact  that  in  South 
America  men  of  complicated  descent  between  ne- 
groes, Indians  and  Spaniards  seldom  had,  whatever 
the  cause  might  be,  a  good  expression.  Livingstone, 
— and  a  more  unimpeachable  authority  cannot  be 

1  Folkways,   §  532. 

2  Animals  and  Plants  under  Domestication,  Vol.  II,  Chapter  XII. 

[27: 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

quoted, — after  speaking  of  a  half-caste  man  on  the 
Zambesi  described  by  the  Portuguese  as  a  rare  mon- 
ster of  inhumanity,  remarks,  'It  is  unaccountable  why 
half-castes  such  as  he  are  so  much  more  cruel  than  the 
Portuguese,  but  such  is  undoubtedly  the  case.'  "  An 
inhabitant  remarked  to  Livingstone,  "God  made 
white  men  and  God  made  black  men,  but  the  devil 
made  half-castes."  When  two  races,  both  low  in  the 
scale,  are  crossed,  the  progeny  seems  to  be  eminently 
bad.  Thus  the  noble-hearted  Humboldt,  who  felt 
none  of  that  prejudice  against  the  inferior  races  now 
so  current  in  England,  speaks  in  strong  terms  of  the 
bad  and  savage  disposition  of  Zambos,  or  half-castes 
between  Indians  and  negroes,  and  this  conclusion  has 
been  arrived  at  by  various  observers.  From  these 
facts  we  may  perhaps  infer  that  the  degraded  state 
of  so  many  half-castes  is  in  part  due  to  reversion  to 
a  primitive  and  savage  condition  induced  by  the  act 
of  crossing  as  well  as  to  the  unfavorable  moral  condi- 
tions under  which  they  generally  exist.^ 

Since  Darwin's  time  investigations  have  been 
pressed  forward  which  throw  an  entirely  new  light 
upon  the  question  of  the  difference  of  races  among 
men  and  it  is  now  conceded  that  there  are  three 
great  races  inhabiting  Europe:  the  Northern,  or 
Nordic  race,  distinguished  by  long  head,  light  hair, 
fair  complexion  and  blue  eyes;  the  Alpine  race, 
round  head,  dark  hair  and  dark  eyes;  and  the  Medi- 
terranean race,  long  head,  dark  hair  and  dark  eyes. 
The  difference  between  these  three  races  while  clear 
is  not  so  important  as  the  difference  between  the 

1  Animals  and  Plants  under  Domestication,  Vol.  II,  pp.  46,  47. 

[283 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

white  man  and  the  negro,  or  the  white  man  and  the 
Chinese.  It  nevertheless  exists  and  is  fundamental,  ^ 
and  it  would  seem  to  be  unquestionably  indicated 
that  intermixture  of  the  three  European  races  should 
be  discouraged  rather  than  encouraged.  The  result 
of  the  marriage  of  an  educated  and  refined  white 
man  with  a  beautiful  South  Italian  peasant  girl 
would  probably  be  to  put  the  children  back  in  the 
stage  of  intellectual  development  many  hundreds  of 
years ;  and  while  as  little  ones  they  might  be  as  bright 
as  any  of  their  more  favored  companions,  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  in  their  case  the  "grey  matter"  would  have  the 
lasting  quality  which  enables  children  of  the  pure 
stock  to  endure  the  strain  of  life  and  to  be  capable 
frequently  of  breaking  into  new  lines  of  thought  at 
the  age  of  forty  years,  less  frequently  at  the  age  of 
fifty  years,  still  less  frequently  at  the  age  of  sixty 
years.  It  is  a  matter  of  no  small  wonder  that  Samuel 
Johnson,  at  the  age  of  seventy  years,  was  able  to  pro- 
duce what  many  critics  considered  his  best  work,  for 
intelligence  seems  to  vary  not  only  in  its  quality  but 
also  in  its  durability. 

Henry  George  said  that  few  men  read  after  they 
were  forty.  By  this  he  meant  that  after  forty  but  few 
men  were  able  to  assimilate  with  ease  new  trains  of 
thought  and  new  ideas.  An  eminent  scientist  was 
severely  criticized  not  many  years  ago  for  voicing  this 
same  idea,  and  of  course  was  misquoted  in  order  to  be 
the  more  severely  condemned,  but  the  facts  are  so 
overwhelming  that  they  cannot  be  doubted.  Very  few 
business  men  are  able  after  forty  to  adapt  themselves 
to  radical  changes,  while  still  perfectly  able  to  con- 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

duct  their  affairs  in  the  routine  method  to  which  they 
have  long  been  accustomed,  and  should  disaster  over- 
take them  after  they  have  reached  that  age  it  is  rare 
indeed  to  find  one  with  sufficient  mental  energy  and 
alertness  to  reestablish  himself  and  rebuild  his  shat- 
tered fortunes.  Exceptions  of  course  have  occurred. 
One  notable  instance  is  in  the  mind  of  many  where  at 
the  age  of  forty,  misfortune  having  overtaken  a  busi- 
ness career,  the  man  turned  his  attention  to  medicine 
and  became  the  leading  surgeon  in  one  of  the  largest 
cities. 

The  conclusion  to  which  we  may  perhaps  come  is 
that  the  "grey  matter"  varies  not  only  in  its  capacity 
but  in  its  power  of  endurance,  and  if  we  looked  to 
the  fundamental  cause  for  quality,  capacity  and  en- 
durance in  the  "grey  matter"  we  should  probably 
find  it  in  the  pedigree. 


It  would  appear  from  the  foregoing  discussion 
that  each  race  possesses  valuable  characteristics 
whose  worth  may  be  increased  by  care  in  reproduc- 
tion, and  that  as  in  the  physical  frame  exercise 
improves  the  muscular  development,  so  intelligence 
by  like  care  in  reproduction  may  be  handed  down 
and  by  the  continuous  training  of  education  may  be 
gradually  improved.  Notwithstanding  the  numer- 
ous facts  which  have  been  arrayed,  it  may  be  insisted 
that  the  discussion  thus  far  has  been  theoretical  and 
that  actual  results  should  be  presented  by  which 
theory  may  be  carefully  tested.  If  the  records  of  race 
life  confirm  the  scientific  investigations  of  the  great 

1:303 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

men  who  have  testified  in  the  preceding  pages  we 
may  proceed  to  draw  positive  conclusions,  and  not 
till  then.     So  be  it. 

The  records  of  race  life  referred  to  are  contained 
in  history.  "But,"  the  cautious  man  objects,  "history 
is  always  biased  and  the  point  of  view  of  the  writer 
always  intrudes.  Macaulay  is  accused  of  writing 
'The  Great  Whig  Brief.'  Froude  is  condemned  as 
unreliable.  History,  in  short,  is  under  suspicion." 
Happily  for  this  investigation,  such  suggestions  have 
no  weight,  for  the  interest  in  this  matter  is  of  recent 
growth — of  recent  years.  No  one  of  the  great  his- 
torians has  written  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
importance  of  race  purity.  The  references  to  it  are 
of  the  most  casual  nature,  and  when  they  occur,  and 
it  is  very,  very  rarely  that  they  do  occur,  have  been 
forced  by  the  facts  on  the  writer,  and  never  have 
been  forced  by  the  writer  on  the  facts.  Indeed,  no 
history  has  ever  been  written  by  any  of  the  great  his- 
torians advocating  any  such  idea.  Nearly  every 
other  point  of  view  has  had  its  champions,  but  never 
this  point  of  view.  It  will  not  be  necessary  there- 
fore for  us  to  be  on  our  guard.  The  testimony  on 
which  we  rely  is  unbiased. 

We  have  behind  us  the  records  of  five  thousand 
years.  During  this  long  stretch  of  time  nations  and 
peoples  pass  across  the  stage.  Their  entrance  on  the 
scene,  their  vivid  life,  its  triumphs  and  defeats,  are 
all  rehearsed. 

What  was  the  cause  of  their  transitory  fame?  Was 
it  a  single  cause,  or  were  there  many  causes?  What 
was  the  cause  of  their  decline — was  it  single  or  were 

C30 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

there  many?  Doubtless  there  were  many — some 
more  important,  some  less  so.  Historians  lay  stress 
upon  various  matters  which  they  hold  have  led  to 
advancement  and  point  to  other  causes  which  they 
maintain  have  led  to  decline.  Some  have  indicated 
the  rude  virtues  of  a  simple  life  untainted  by  wealth 
and  luxury  which  made  for  betterment.  Others  sug- 
gest climatic  changes  or  wide-spread  diseases — 
malaria,^  for  instance — as  sapping  pristine  vigor. 
Slavery  has  been  another  matter  of  undoing  on  which 
much  stress  has  been  laid.  Unjust  taxation,  crushing 
out  the  life  of  the  people,  is  yet  another.  The  more 
common  method  is  for  the  historian  to  speak  of  hid- 
den causes  of  remote  origin  tending  to  undermine 
national  strength,  which,  when  the  decline  sets  in, 
begin  to  effect  their  deadly  work.  But  these  causes 
are  not  specifically  detailed.  They  are  referred  to 
as  hidden  and  remote,  and  to  the  reader  ever  remain 
hidden  and  remote. 

In  this  complex  of  circumstances  is  there  no  one 
thing  to  be  observed,  no  one  thing  to  be  noted,  which 
is  always  present?  Is  there  no  one  factor  common  to 
all  race  advancement,  the  passing  or  the  absence  of 
which  is  common  to  all  race  decline?  It  is  not  sug- 
gested that  we  should  look  for  one  sole  factor,  for 
in  each  case  many  though  varying  causes  may  be 
present.  But  if  one  factor  is  uniformly  present  with 
rising  fortune,  and  its  enfeeblement  or  removal  coin- 
cides with  the  beginning  of  ill  hap,  may  not  this  all- 
pervasive  factor  be  the  important  factor,  after  all? 

1  Jones,  Malaria,  A  Neglected  Factor,  etc. 

1:32: 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 

Society  is  made  up  of  individuals.  If  tlie  individ- 
uals are  supine  and  inert,  so  is  the  aggregation  they 
form.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  each  is  alert  and  vigor- 
ous, such  will  be  their  mass. 

If  the  members  of  a  tribe  or  people  are  of  a  com- 
mon stock,  speaking  a  common  tongue,  holding  in 
common  ideals  and  animated  by  the  same  sentiments, 
the  result  of  their  united  action  v^^ill  create  manifes- 
tations much  more  important  than  those  of  a  state 
composed  of  a  jumbled  mass  of  unrelated  elements. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  history  always  shows  many 
and  for  the  most  part  varying  causes  of  greatness  and 
decay,  let  us  examine  the  records  to  ascertain  if  by 
any  chance  one  factor  either  in  its  presence  or  in  its 
absence  is  constantly  manifest. 

The  story  of  humanity,  its  rise  twenty-three  hun- 
dred years  ago  to  moral  and  intellectual  heights 
which  have  in  many  respects  never  since  been 
equalled,  its  fall  to  depths  of  misery  which  cannot 
be  understood,  is  not  much  read  and  not  much 
studied.  It  involved  a  world  which  is  close  to  us  as 
it  is  peculiarly  our  own.  For  us  it  is  the  tragedy  of 
mankind,  gigantic,  all-embracing,  which  moved  on 
in  its  measured  gradation,  its  resistless,  remorseless 
sequence,  to  its  revolting  climax  a  thousand  years 
ago.  Were  this  all,  we  ourselves,  partakers  and  suf- 
ferers in  the  result,  would  be  too  sunken  and  de- 
graded to  mark,  learn,  or  understand;  but  from  the 
depths  a  race  of  purer  blood  has  risen — a  race 
fashioned  like  those  men  of  old;  like  them,  capable 
of  equally  great  attainment — of  equally  unutterable 

CssH 


OPINIONS  OF 
SCIENTISTS 


abasement.  The  story  of  antiquity  points  its  own 
moral.  It  is  for  us  to  profit  by  it  or  refuse  to  learn — 
to  take  it  or  to  leave  it;  to  take  it  if  we  possess,  to 
leave  it  if  we  lack,  intelligence. 


FIRST  PERIOD 

3500  B.C.  TO  3000  B.C. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  historic  triumph  of  scientific 
scholarship  has  been  the  unfolding  and  development 
of  the  story  of  Egypt.^  It  has  been  a  wonderful  rec- 
ord of  achievement  and  we  may  rejoice  that  what 
was  lost  is  found,  that  by  the  spade  of  the  workman 
and  the  lore  of  the  scholar  the  nebulous  cloud  of 
myth  and  legend  has  been  resolved  into  brilliant 
stars  of  fact.    The  riddle  of  the  Sphinx  is  answered. 

The  story  begins  about  three  thousand  five  hun- 
dred years  before  Christ  and  ends  three  thousand 
years  later  in  the  conquest  of  Cambyses  the  Persian. 
No  other  race  or  nation  can  exhibit  such  a  long  con- 
tinuity of  political  life.  It  is  unparalleled.  But  this 
is  not  all,  for  all  scientists  concur  in  suggesting  a  still 
more  remote  past  for  the  origin  of  this  strange 
people.  The  end  we  know,  but  the  beginnings  are 
not  yet  discovered. 

For  ages  the  Egyptian  kept  his  blood  untainted. 
The  decree  upon  the  Nile  Rock  still  stands  re- 
corded,^ which,  while  it  permits  individual  negroes 
to  pass  the  forts  for  the  purpose  of  trade,  forbids 
any  ship  of  negroes  to  pass  down  the  Nile  forever, 

1  Note.  -  Infra,    p.    43. 

1:343 


FIRST  PERIOD 
3500  B.C.  TO  3000  B.C. 

and  it  is  clearly  but  one  of  many  similar  precautions 
and  restrictions. 

In  those  early  days  the  horse  was  unknown  and  the 
difficulty  and  danger  of  desert  travel  on  foot,  or  at 
best  with  a  slow-moving  ass,  rendered  lateral  in- 
vasion by  any  great  body  of  men  practically  impos- 
sible. Gradual  infiltration,  however,  did  occur. 
The  mere  fact  that  Petrie  finds  at  Koptos,  the  west- 
ern end  of  the  old  caravan  route  from  the  Red  Sea, 
three  statues  pointing  to  a  Semitic  form  of  worship 
would  seem  to  indicate  some  infiltration  from 
Arabia.  Latterly  examination  of  skeletal  remains 
would  seem  to  indicate  an  infiltration  from  the  north- 
east into  the  Delta  of  a  people  akin  perhaps  to  the 
Armenians  one  of  the  remarkable  races  of  olden 
times. 

In  the  first  dawn  of  its  historic  life  Egyptian  so- 
ciety seems  to  have  been  constituted  on  very  much 
the  same  principle  as  the  Scottish  clan  if  it  be  granted 
that  the  chieftain  owned  all  the  land.  The  nobility 
and  the  Pharaoh  seem  to  have  formed  one  great  fam- 
ily. At  that  time  much  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile  lay 
in  swamp  and  morass  and  the  great  beasts  now 
found  only  south  of  Khartoum  were  not  infrequent. 
From  the  first  the  Egyptian  seems  to  have  been  a 
farmer.  The  exact  status  of  the  great  mass  of  inhabi- 
tants is  not  known,  probably  some  form  of  serfdom. 
The  peculiarities  of  the  river,  while  they  encouraged 
agriculture,  also  encouraged  the  science  of  engineer- 
ing;^ for  after  the  floods  subsided,  the  boundaries  of 
each  man's  farm  must  have  been  reestablished,  and 

1  Story  of  Euclid  Frankland,  p.  17. 


FIRST  PERIOD 
3500  B.C.  TO  3000  B.C. 

as  population  increased  the  swamps  had  to  be 
drained  and  more  and  more  of  the  fertile  valley  re- 
claimed. For  its  government  the  Pharaoh  appointed 
from  among  the  immediate  family  of  nobles  govern- 
ors or  nomarchs  who  had  no  proprietary  interest  in 
their  province  as  a  province,  but  seem  to  have  been 
appointed  and  removed  at  the  pleasure  of  the  King. 
Trees  must  have  been  plentiful,  and  wood  the  build- 
ing material,  for  it  is  not  until  about  the  year  3000 
that  stone  construction  begins. 

The  Egyptian  had  no  one  to  instruct  him.  He  was 
alone,  unaided.  To  overcome  the  difficulties  of  his 
situation  he  was  forced  to  rely  upon  his  own  inbred 
genius.  And  the  legend  of  the  Greeks  that  geometry 
was  understood  before  Menes,  under  whose  sway  the 
Kingdom  of  the  North  and  the  Kingdom  of  the 
South  were  brought  together,^  seems  to  be  justified 
by  the  facts;  for  so  great  was  the  engineering  skill 
that  within  a  century  and  a  quarter^  after  the  first 
rude  stone  construction  the  Egyptian  engineer  built 
with  exquisite  nicety  of  adjustment  one  of  the  won- 
ders of  the  world — the  great  Pyramid. 


SECOND  PERIOD 
3000  B.C.  TO  2500  B.C. 

The  Thinites,  as  they  were  called,  continued  to  rule 
Egypt  until  about  the  year  3000,  at  which  time  a 
change  takes  place  and  a  new  dynasty  has  its  seat  of 
government  at  Memphis.     "The  revolutions  which 

^  B.C.  3400.  -  B.C.  3000. 

n363 


SECOND  PERIOD 
3000  B.C.  TO  2500  B.C. 

brought  to  an  end  the  dominion  of  the  upper  Egyp- 
tian dynasties  of  Thinis  were  the  result  of  a  subtle 
change  which  had  taken  place  in  the  Egyptian  people 
itself.  We  have  seen  that  the  population  of  the  pre- 
historic period  (before  3500)  was  of  an  unmixed 
stock.  Foreign  traits  appear  in  rare  individual 
bodies  among  the  lower  Egyptian  graves  of  the  early 
dynastic  period,  while  the  upper  Egyptians  still  re- 
tain the  race  unmixed.  A  new  element  was  thus  be- 
ing infused  slowly  into  the  Nile  people  from  North 
to  South,  and  by  the  time  of  the  Old  Kingdom  (3000 
to  2500)  the  ruling  classes  of  the  Delta  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  Memphis  were  largely  made  up  of  newcomers, 
sturdy,  muscular  and  vigorous,  with  evident  Asiatic 
(Armenoid)  traits.  The  foreigners  had  entered  the 
Delta  gradually — not  in  sufficient  force  to  deflect  the 
stream  of  Nilotic  culture,  but  in  time  their  infusion 
of  new  and  virile  blood  stimulated  the  lower  Egyp- 
tians to  achieve  the  prominent  place  in  the  King- 
dom."^ 

This  Northern  blood,  becoming  dominant,  infused 
fresh  vigor,  just  as  the  Arabian  and  the  Barb 
influenced  the  English  race  horse.  The  reinvigor- 
ated  Egyptians  push  south  into  Nubia.  They  open 
intercourse  with  the  oases  on  the  west.  This  whole 
change  makes  the  year  3000  an  important  date,  and 
the  race  improvement  punctuates  itself  not  only  by 
extending  its  frontiers,  but  by  its  scientific  achieve- 
ments. 

The  same  creative  mental  power  which  con- 
structed the  calendar  which  we  now  use,  and  which 

1  MS.  of  H.  E.  Wmlock. 

1:373 


SECOND  PERIOD 
3000  B.C.  TO  2500  B  c. 

lay  behind  its  other  attainments,  fitted  Egypt  for 
artistic  and  industrial  life.  She  had  no  difficulty  in 
finding  foreign  markets  for  her  commerce,  which 
expanded,  but  did  not  introduce  much  alien  blood. 
The  various  activities  did,  however,  add  to  the 
growth  and  importance  of  the  middle  class,  and 
as  the  Tudors  in  England,  taught  by  the  bitter  experi- 
ence of  their  predecessors  with  the  great  Barons, 
invoked  the  aid  of  the  lesser  nobility  and  the  promi- 
nent members  of  the  middle  class,^  so  we  find  at 
least  one  instance  where  an  able  man  of  humble 
origin  becomes  by  a  series  of  promotions  confiden- 
tial adviser  to  the  King.  Uni,  under  Teti  II  and 
Pepi  I,  is  such  an  one.  This  simply  means  more  gen- 
eral diffusion  of  intelligence. 

Of  all  our  earthly  tasks  thinking  is  probably  the 
hardest  work,  and  yet  the  splendid  temples  which 
now  arose  with  their  art  and  ritual  are  at  once  the 
result  and  the  indication  of  concentrated  mental 
effort.  This,  the  most  arduous  toil  known  to  man, 
was  continuously  involved  in  the  production  of  the 
multifarious  improvements  and  growing  wealth 
which  made  the  temples  possible.  Intelligent  exer- 
tion constantly  increased  fullness  of  life,  and  this  in 
turn  increased  the  needs  and  necessities  which  fuller 
life  demanded.  These  increased  needs  and  neces- 
sities were  met  by  ever  increasing  intelligence  which 
was  not  the  result  of  accident  or  chance,  but  of  birth 
and  breeding. 

The  change  of  dynasty  (2980  B.C.)  must  have 
disrupted  the  tie,  almost  that  of  family — in  instances 

'  History  of  England   (Oman),  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  294,  481;  Vol.  IV,  p.  7. 

1:38a 


SECOND  PERIOD 
3000  B.C.  TO  2500  B.C. 

really  that  of  family — which  existed  between  the 
previous  line  of  Pharaohs  and  the  local  governors. 

We  have  a  similar  estrangement  of  the  throne  from 
the  nobles  when  England  imported  the  Hanoverians 
and  broke  the  close  connection  between  the  old  royal 
line  and  the  great  English  landholders  and  nobles. 

The  loyalty  and  devotion  to  the  chief  of  the  clan, 
the  centralized  unity  of  race  action,  evidenced  by  the 
vast  pyramids,  are  gradually  sapped  and  undermined. 
During  the  five  hundred  years  we  are  considering 
the  great  barons  of  the  nomes  acquire  them  by  fixed 
and  hereditary  right.  This  change  is  accomplished 
by  2750  B.  C.^  and  is  followed  by  more  and  more 
clashes  with  the  royal  power.  Thirty-five  hundred 
years  before  the  story  of  the  English  barons  and  their 
resistance  to  royalty  was  written  in  England  it  was 
written  in  Egypt.  The  royal  power  once  weakened, 
the  bickerings  between  the  nomarchs  began. 


THIRD  PERIOD 

2500  B.C.  TO  2000  B.C. 

The  feudal  age  in  Egypt  Is  the  great  change  which 
marks  the  year  2500  B.  C. 

In  long  continued  anarchy,  "the  child  was  smit- 
ten beside  his  mother,  the  citizen  beside  his  wife. 
Evil  doers  were  everywhere." 

A  Warwick  at  last  appears  in  the  person  of  the 
Nomarch  of  Siut,  and  with  his  help  order  is  at  last 
restored.  Peace  once  more  brings  with  it  plenty,  at 
least  in  Siut,  when  a  strange  thing  happens:    Taxes 

1:393 


THIRD  PERIOD 
2500  B.C.  TO  2000  B.C. 

are  reduced!  But  internecine  strife  has  meanwhile 
taken  sad  toll  of  the  best  blood  of  the  land. 

A  middle  class  is  distinctly  in  evidence — a  most 
important  development. 

About  2200  B.C.  Egypt  is  once  again  divided  into 
two  kingdoms  which  contend,  and  eventually  Thebes 
in  a  way  rules  the  whole  land.  The  old  order,  how- 
ever, is  forever  gone. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  three  hundred  years 
passed  in  utter  anarchy.  No;  it  would  have  been 
impossible.  Flesh  and  blood  could  not  have  en- 
dured it.  The  nearest  parallel  we  have  to  it  is  prob- 
ably that  of  England's  unrest  from  1200  to  1485,  with 
the  even  greater  sufifering  which  preceded  under  the 
early  Normans  interjected  from  time  to  time.^ 

National  life  kept  its  course  and  as  one  nomarch 
after  another  became  strong  enough  he  at  least  kept 
the  peace  within  his  own  borders,  and  saw  to  it  that 
farmer,  artisan  and  artist  were  protected.  They 
went  further  yet  in  carrying  on  public  works  in  a 
limited  way,  and  more  than  one  instance  is  recorded 
of  the  Prince  proud  not  only  of  the  even-handed  jus- 
tice he  administered,  but  also  of  furnishing  food  for 
his  people  when  the  Nile  failed  in  its  accustomed 
bounty.  The  story  of  Joseph  was  an  old,  old  story 
in  Egypt  long  before  Abraham  departed  from  Ur  of 
the  Chaldees  or  lengthened  his  name. 

Pressure  from  East  and  West  must  have  increased 
in  times  of  weakness  and  confusion,  and  especially  on 
the  Western  Delta,  where  the  Libyans  were  always 

1  Harrying  of  Northumberland,  Norman  Conquest,  Freeman,  Vol.  IV, 
p.  289,  Made  a  desert,  and  Vol.  II,  p.  174. 

n4o3 


THIRD  PERIOD 
2500  B.C.  TO  2000  B.C. 

a  source  of  trouble  and  foreign  blood  must  have 
increasingly  mingled  with  that  of  the  native.  It 
must  be  reiterated  that  the  horse  had  not  been  intro- 
duced and  that  desert  journeys  were  slow,  difficult 
and  perilous. 

Just  at  the  close  of  this  period  (2000  B.  C.  )  a  strong 
man  arises  who  moves  the  Seat  of  Empire  from 
Thebes  northward  to  somewhere  near  Memphis  and 
dominates  the  feudal  lords. 


FOURTH  PERIOD 
2000  B.C.  TO  1500  B.C. 

The  Old  Kingdom  has  passed  away — the  Middle 
Kingdom  begins,  and  begins  with  a  great  man, 
Amenemhet  I.  Apparently  he  had  been  vizier 
under  the  preceding  Pharaoh,  and  had  obtained  and 
organized  his  power  so  that  even  while  vizier  he  was 
able  to  muster  ten  thousand  men  for  a  quarrying  ex- 
pedition. It  must  be  remembered  that  the  organiza- 
tion which  could  lead  ten  thousand  men  into  the 
desert,  and  keep  them  supplied  with  rations  and 
water,  must  have  been  well  thought  out.  This  capa- 
city for  organization  must  have  stood  Amenemhet  in 
good  stead  in  the  warfare  which  he  carried  on  against 
the  nomarchs  to  consolidate  his  power.  Great  as  had 
been  the  slaughter  during  the  times  of  anarchy  in  the 
preceding  period  (2500  B.C.-2000  B.C.),  there  were 
still  left  many  of  the  old  barons  who  could  trace 
their  lineage  back  to  a  distant  past.  Apparently  by 
conquest,  as  well  as  by  negotiation,  this  great  king 


FOURTH  PERIOD 

2000  B.C.  TO  1500  B.C. 

achieved  the  reorganization  of  the  country,  and 
must  have  stood  towards  his  vassals  very  much  as 
William  the  Norman  stood  toward  his  unruly  and 
contentious  barons. 

It  is  not  of  kings  and  rulers  that  we  desire  to  speak, 
save  as  they  illustrate  the  point  we  have  under  dis- 
cussion, but  in  this  case  the  wonderful  succession  of 
great  men  who  follow  each  other  upon  the  throne  of 
Egypt  for  two  hundred  years  illustrates  and  con- 
firms the  argument.  It  is  not  till  1801  B.C.  that  a 
change  occurs  in  the  royal  line.  The  reason  sug- 
gested is  the  untimely  death  of  the  son,  prince  and 
co-regent  Ewibre,  whose  wooden  statue  testifies  not 
only  to  the  beauty  and  purity  of  his  race,  but  also  to 
the  artistic  genius  of  the  sculptor.  The  death  of 
Ewibre  ends  the  powerful  succession.  He  was  the 
destined  successor  and  brought  up  so  to  be.  Though 
there  were  two  more,  they  made  but  little  mark. 

Of  this  long  and  splendid  line  the  name  Sesostris 
— there  were  three  of  them — became  and  is  to-day  a 
household  word  signifying  greatness  and  power. 
History  presents  no  other  such  instance.  From  gen- 
eration to  generation  for  two  hundred  years  it  handed 
down  from  father  to  son  its  amazing  hereditary 
genius. 

It  is  to  be  especially  remarked  that  always  in 
Egypt  the  natural  line  of  succession  was  through  the 
eldest  daughter. 

The  good  side  of  the  rule  of  the  Nomarch,  who 
felt  personally  interested  in  the  advancement  of  his 
province,  was  the  great  impetus  given  to  the  local 
handicraftsman  throughout  the  whole  valley.     We 

n42] 


FOURTH  PERIOD 
2000  B.C.  TO  1500  B.C. 

Still  have  specimens  of  jewelry  of  surpassing  beauty, 
delicacy  and  workmanship.  And  it  must  always  be 
remembered  that  in  judging  of  these  old  Egyptian 
triumphs  we  have  as  a  basis  for  our  conclusion  only 
such  remains  as  the  conditions  south  of  the  Delta 
preserved.  The  great  works  in  the  Delta  itself  have 
almost  without  exception  perished.  At  the  same 
time  the  Delta  seems  to  have  been  the  point  of  origin 
of  culture  and  of  power,  and  probably  contained  vast 
numbers  of  splendid  works,  great  cities,  magnificent 
temples,  and  all  the  evidences  of  a  luxurious 
civilization. 

As  to  the  character  of  the  people  and  the  physical 
expression  of  the  force  that  was  within  them,  one  has 
but  to  glance  at  the  statue  of  Amenemhet  III  to 
know  that  one  is  in  the  presence  of  a  king  of  men. 

There  is  clear  evidence  that  business  operations  in 
the  absence  of  coined  money  were  conducted  with 
reference  to  value  expressed  in  weight  of  copper. 
Gold,  as  always  hitherto,  was  of  less  value  than 
silver.  And  the  various  mines  not  only  of  precious 
metals  (the  term  must  also  include  quarries),  which 
had  hitherto  been  worked  by  transitory  expeditions, 
were  in  many  instances  made  permanent  stations. 
Commerce  flourished,  a  regular  post  was  established 
between  Egypt,  Palestine  and  Syria.  It  is  to  be 
noted,  however,  that  on  the  south,  at  the  second  cata- 
ract, commanding  fortresses  were  built  on  each  side 
of  the  river,  and  no  negroes  were  allowed  to  pass 
save  for  the  purposes  of  trade.  Negroes  were  to  be 
treated  kindly,  but  no  ship  of  the  negroes  was  "to  pass 
going  down  stream  forever." 

[43] 


FOURTH  PERIOD 

2000  B.C.  TO  1500  B.C. 

The  priests  consolidate  their  interests,  and  from 
now  on  exert  greater  and  greater  influence:  a  bale- 
ful portent  for  Egypt.  Ammon-Re  becomes  the 
leading  divinity.  They  manufacture  a  mass  of 
charms  to  preserve  their  votaries  in  health  and  for- 
tune in  this  life,  and  magical  documents  to  bring 
their  souls  past  the  trying  ordeal  of  judgment  in  the 
life  to  come,  thus  increasing  their  revenues  and  their 
power. 

Naturally  the  practical  bent  of  Egypt  asserted 
itself.  The  cataract  is  channelled.  The  nilometer 
and  census  regulate  taxes.  The  Fayoum  sees  a  vast 
engineering  work  which  adds  thousands  of  acres  to 
the  arable  land,  and  whose  great  reservoir  relieves 
the  Delta  during  the  hundred  days  of  low  Nile  by 
doubling  its  volume.  Literature  springs  up.  A 
young  Egyptian  of  the  royal  house  flees  for  his  life 
across  the  desert,  is  received  by  one  of  the  little  tribes, 
meets  in  combat  and  slays  the  champion  of  the  op- 
posing tribe,  and  tells  the  tale  nearly  a  thousand 
years  before  David  slew  Goliath.  Under  an  Egyp- 
tian name  Sinbad  is  rescued  from  shipwreck  by  the 
serpent  queen  of  an  island  and  sent  home  rich.  Some 
beautiful  poetry  still  survives,  and  the  mystery  plays 
of  the  middle  ages  have  their  precedent  in  the  re- 
ligious dramas  of  this  period.  To  study  is  regarded 
as  meritorious.  The  ability  to  write,  so  despised  by 
the  European  nobles  of  the  middle  ages,  is  valued, 
and  wise  saws  and  sayings  are  collected  hundreds  of 
years  before  Solomon  thought  of  his  proverbs. 

It  is  clear  from  the  foregoing  that  information  was 
more  and  more  widely  distributed,  and  that  the  mid- 

1^1 


FOURTH  PERIOD 
2000  B.C.  TO  1500  B.C. 

die  class,  among  whom  must  be  reckoned  the  large 
and  constantly  increasing  official  class,  was  steadily 
growing  in  mental  capacity  and  political  weight. 
The  result  will  shortly  appear. 

For  a  few  years  more  the  impetus  given  by  the 
great  monarchs  keeps  the  vast  machine  of  intricate 
administration  in  regular  motion,  then  weak  kings 
invite  rebellion,  and  avarice  and  egotism  incite  the 
several  nomarchs,  or  governors,  to  struggle  for  self- 
aggrandizement.  Each  becomes  a  petty  king  that 
"raught  at  sceptres  with  outstretched  arms  yet  parted 
but  the  shadow  with  his  hand."^ 

And  now  appears  the  result  of  the  gradual  trick- 
ling downward  of  intelligence.  "Private  individ- 
uals," writes  Breasted,  whose  charming  story  we  fol- 
low, "contended  with  the  rest,  and  occasionally  won 
the  coveted  goal."  Neferhotep  established  a  stable 
government.  He  frankly  names  his  untitled  parents. 
He  is  succeeded  by  his  son,  who  is  succeeded  by  his 
father's  brother,  Sebekhotep,  the  "greatest  king  of 
this  dark  age."  That  talent  ran  in  this  lowly  family 
cannot  be  denied.  Brains  are  not  confined  to  aris- 
tocrats. 

In  the  confusion  which  followed,  the  tangled  skein 
of  events  is  not  as  yet  unravelled.  A  hint  is  given  of 
negro  invasion  from  the  south,  and  their  dominance 
as  far  north  as  the  first  cataract;  on  the  west  the 
Libyans  were  doubtless  raiding,  and  from  the  north 
and  east  came  the  Hyksos.  During  a  century  the 
race  blood  must  have  been  seriously  contaminated  and 
the  fact  not  dwelt  on  nor  contemporaneously  noted. 

1  Henry  VI,  Part  III,  Act   i. 


FOURTH  PERIOD 
2000  B.C.  TO  1500  B.C. 

The  Egyptians  spoke  of  the  Eastern  invaders  as  "men 
of  ignoble  birth." 

Nevertheless,  the  great  currents  of  Egyptian  life 
kept  flowing  on.  Civilization  was  halted,  not  de- 
stroyed, and  as  some  offset  to  calamity  received  an 
important  assistant — the  horse. 

What  we  must  note  is  this:  The  long  war  which 
ended  in  the  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos  changed  the 
Egyptian  mores.  The  nation  of  husbandmen  became 
a  nation  of  warriors  whose  success  was  their  own 
undoing.  In  an  incredibly  brief  time  this  wonderful 
people  mastered  the  great  principles  of  the  art  of 
war,  which  they  were  compelled  first  to  invent.  From 
strategy  and  tactics  to  information  and  transporta- 
tion, all  was  theirs. 

The  instant  adoption  of  the  horse  is  to  be  remarked 
as  bearing  upon  Egyptian  brain-power.  The  horse 
and  chariot  constituted  the  armored  tank  of  that 
time.  The  possession  of  this  weapon  by  the  Hyksos 
goes  a  long  way  in  accounting  for  their  triumph.  It 
was  assimilated  at  once  by  the  Egyptians  and  used 
by  Ahmose  in  driving  out  and  following  up  the 
Hyksos.  As  the  result  Ahmose  I  (i 580-1 557  B.C.), 
with  a  disciplined  and  veteran  army,  is  once  again,  as 
in  the  beginning,  a  Pharaoh,  owning  all  the  land  of 
Egypt. 

One  of  the  most  deliciously  humorous  things  in 
history  is  the  contrast  between  the  warlike  story  of 
the  method  of  acquisition,  dug  out  by  scholars  and 
the  spade  from  contemporaneous  Egyptian  docu- 
ments, and  the  account  of  Joseph's  bargaining  pre- 
served for  centuries  as  an  oral  legend  and  finally  re- 

1:46: 


FOURTH  PERIOD 
2000  B.C.  TO  1500  B.C. 

corded  in  the  Old  Testament.^  In  each  case  Pharaoh 
acquires  the  whole  land.  The  contrast  is  that  be- 
tween Ivanhoe  and  Isaac  of  York,  each  great  in  his 
own  way. 

The  barons,  hereditary  grandees  for  twelve  hun- 
dred years,  pass,  and  the  large  middle  class  furnishes 
the  government  officials,  civil  and  military,  and  be- 
comes prominent. 

Already  another  one  of  the  evils  which  destroy 
Egypt  appears.  Captives  in  war  become  slaves  and 
intermingle  and  intermarry  with  the  people,  and  as 
their  number  increases  so  does  the  evil.  The  stock 
deteriorates. 


FIFTH  PERIOD 

1500  B.C.  TO  1000  B.C. 

During  the  last  cycle  of  five  hundred  years  the  old 
landed  nobility  almost  disappeared,  and  even  their 
families  to  a  great  extent  ceased  to  exist.  It  was  a 
tenacious  and  splendid  stock.  Its  official  place  ap- 
pears to  have  been  taken  in  some  degree  by  fresh 
royal  creations. 

A  great  fact  stands  out  most  forcibly:  The  middle 
class  of  Egyptians  had  gradually  sprung  up  and  now 
was  ready  to  play  its  part  in  history.  Three  thousand 
years  later  we  shall  find  in  England  the  great  barons 
passing  away,  and  there  also  the  middle  class 
emerges,  prepared  in  its  turn  to  take  up  the  burden 
of  the  government. 

1  Genesis,  XLVII. 

U7l 


FIFTH  PERIOD 

1500  B.C.  TO  1000  B.C. 

Of  the  great  achievements  of  the  Emperor  Thut- 
mose  III  ( 1 501-1447  B.C.),  we  have  little  or  nothing 
to  say.  The  race  had  suffered  a  large  infusion  of 
foreign  blood.  It  had  lost  a  large  proportion  of  its 
old  dominant  class. 

It  seems  as  if  race  manifestations  are  subject  to  two 
variables:  The  first  is  the  relative  purity  of  the  race 
blood,  and  is  to  be  noted  in  the  punctuation  of  racial 
peculiarities.  The  second  is  dependent  upon  the 
amount  of  unity  in  the  race  action.  Its  characteristic 
may  be  found  in  the  rapidity  with  which  the  race 
secures  its  objectives. 

To  make  up  for  the  loss  in  blood  power  the  Em- 
pire insisted  upon  the  greatest  possible  unity  of 
action. 

For  many  years  his  Queen  secluded  Thutmose 
from  power.  She  was  of  the  race  royal,  through 
whom  he  claimed  the  throne,  and  was  backed  by  the 
remnant  of  the  old  nobility.  She  is  the  first  woman 
of  her  own  right  Empress  of  Egypt.  There  is  here 
a  distinct  departure  from  race  custom.  In  her  pre- 
eminent ability  she  clearly  exhibits  her  ancestral 
traits.  With  her  death  the  real  career  of  this  won- 
derful man  begins,  his  realm  stretching  from  the 
fourth  cataract  to  the  Euphrates. 

There  is  a  matter  to  which  particular  attention 
should  be  called — the  Egyptians  were  not  a  cruel 
race.  True,  captives  were  sacrificed  to  Ammon,  but 
we  must  remember  that  less  than  a  hundred  years 
ago,  a  woman  of  education,  breeding  and  culture  in 
New  England,  when  a  little  child  was  found  com- 
mitting sin,  urged  upon  him  the  moral  expediency 

1:48: 


FIFTH  PERIOD 

1500  B.C.  TO    1000  B.C. 

of  hewing  Agag  to  pieces  before  the  Lord.  That 
same  woman  would  have  been  frightfully  shocked  at 
learning  that  the  Egyptians  from  time  to  time  sac- 
rificed captives.  Although  the  Egyptians  had  before 
them  the  example  of  Semitic  barbarities  in  con- 
quered territory,  the  treatment  by  the  Egyptians  of 
conquered  lands  seems  always  to  have  been  humane. 

Thutmose  III  owed  his  elevation  to  the  priests 
who  in  the  temple  of  Ammon  revealed  his  divinity, 
just  as  they  did  twelve  hundred  years  later,  in  a 
temple  of  the  same  god,  to  Alexander.  Naturally 
his  gifts  to  the  church  were  lavish  and  in  this  he 
began  a  course  of  royal  giving  which  ultimately  im- 
poverished the  kingdom. 

His  great  victories  even  more  than  at  any  time 
before  led  to  the  capture  of  vast  numbers  of  prisoners 
who  became  slaves  and  were  distributed  all  over  the 
land  of  Egypt  to  work  with,  marry  among  and  dilute 
the  purity  of  the  blood  of  the  old  stock.  Asiatics 
were  not  the  only  slaves.  Negroes  were  brought  in, 
and  in  these  slave  importations  women  are  seen  car- 
rying their  little  children  with  them. 

This  is  exactly  the  course  followed  by  the  Romans 
in  Southern  Italy;  their  great  latifundia,  worked 
entirely  by  slave  labor,  drove  out  the  independent 
farmer,  and  as  Rome  drew  her  slaves  from  every 
quarter,  the  population  of  Southern  Italy  became 
hopelessly  intermingled  and  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years  has  produced  no  men  of  eminence. 

In  our  own  country  under  the  name  immigrant  the 
United  States  is  following  in  the  footsteps  of  Egypt 
and  Rome. 

1:493 


FIFTH  PERIOD 

1500  B.C.  TO  1000  B.C. 

Nor  did  the  work  of  Thutmose  III  stop  with  eon- 
quest.  He  was  a  statesman  as  well  as  a  great  gen- 
eral. Many  of  his  expeditions  were  for  the  purpose 
of  organizing  territory.  Egypt  became  an  industrial 
state  of  great  consequence — commerce  flourished, 
and  wealth  poured  in.  As  a  rule  the  Semite  was  not 
a  creative  artist.^  He  could  be  a  great  builder,  and 
the  Phoenicians  are  notable  traders  and  copyists. - 
On  the  other  hand,  Egypt  was  a  creative  artist,  and 
therefore  found  a  ready  market  everywhere  for  her 
wares.  Asiatics  and  probably  natives  of  the  Medi- 
terranean Islands  could  be  seen  as  visitors  in  the 
streets  of  Thebes.  The  barriers  of  ages  were  broken 
down. 

The  Emperor's  activities  are  especially  noticeable 
in  Egypt  itself,  where  he  labors  to  correct  the  evils 
which  have  grown  up  for  years  under  corrupt  tax 
gatherers,  and  also  in  his  strenuous  efforts  to  im- 
prove the  administration  of  justice.  He  was  a  man 
of  genius,  recognized  in  his  time  as  such,  and  so 
regarded  by  subsequent  ages.  He  was  succeeded  by 
able  men.  Amenhotep  II,  his  son,  is  one  of  them. 
He  extends  the  frontier  to  the  south,  and  is  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Thutmose  IV.  Returning  from 
one  expedition,  Thutmose  IV  settles  a  colony  of  pris- 
oners in  Egypt.  He  departs  from  the  Pharaonic 
custom  and  evidently  for  reasons  of  state  marries  a 
woman  of  entirely  different  race  who  is  the  mother 
of  Amenhotep  III,  his  son  and  successor.  Under 
him  the  foreign  trade  of  Egypt  is  vastly  increased 
and  the  industrial  life  of  Egypt  keeps  even  pace. 

1  Perrot  and  Chlpiez,  Phoenicia.  -  Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  pp.  78-79. 


FIFTH  PERIOD 

1500  B.C.  TO    1000  B.C. 

Naturally  the  wide  interests  of  the  great  empire 
still  further  open  the  door  to  foreigners  and  the  pres- 
ence of  strangers  in  the  streets  of  Thebes  becomes 
common.  As  an  indication  of  the  great  economic 
changes  under  way,  silver,  which  had  been  double 
the  worth  of  gold,  fell  below  gold  in  value,  and  seems 
to  have  steadily  continued  to  fall.  Slaves  continued 
to  be  brought  in,  were  placed  among  the  serfs,  and 
became  taxpayers  as  the  serfs  are  taxpayers.  The 
simple  customs  of  the  old  Egyptian  court  vanish 
before  the  luxury  of  the  day.  The  usual  gifts  of  the 
Pharaoh  become  magnificent  and  the  art  of  Egypt  is 
expressed  in  great  piles  of  masonry  of  beautiful  form 
and  new  invention.  The  smaller  work  exhibits  rare 
excellence  of  finish,  while  preserving  great  dignity. 

Art  is  one  of  the  most  prominent  of  race  manifes- 
tations. It  rises  and  falls  with  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
race  capacity.  Egyptian  art  is  absolutely  different 
in  thought  and  expression  from  the  Semitic  art  or 
the  art  of  the  Orient.^  In  its  early  examples  such 
as  the  ivory  statuette  brought  together  with  such 
infinite  labor  by  Flinders-Petrie  and  the  Sheik  El- 
Beled  and  perhaps  the  scribe  in  the  Louvre,  and  in 
the  beautiful  models  found  in  artists'  studios  of  later 
date,  not  only  the  method  of  attack,  but  the  artist's 
point  of  view,  and  above  all  the  thought  behind  both 
the  method  of  attack  and  the  artist's  view-point,  is 
essentially  the  same  as  that  of  the  Greek. 

The  reign  of  Amenhotep  marks  the  culmination 
of  the  splendor  of  the  Empire,  and  it  is  probable  that 
Thebes   of   this   era,   the   hundred-gated,   gave   the 

1  Pennithorne,  The  Geometry  and  Optics  of  Ancient  Architecture. 


FIFTH  PERIOD 
1500  B.C.  TO  1000  B.C. 

powerful  impression  which  has  survived  in  legend 
and  in  song. 

For  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years  an  illus- 
trious son  succeeds  an  illustrious  father — another 
instance  of  the  power  of  purity  of  blood. 

Civilization  reaches  a  high  point.  Wealth  greatly 
increases  and  luxury,  its  handmaiden,  creeps  in, 
undermining  and  weakening  the  powers  of  resist- 
ance of  its  votaries.  The  human  race  seems  to  be 
able  to  withstand  almost  any  disease  better  than  it 
can  withstand  the  sudden  and  great  changes  wrought 
by  its  own  advance  in  art  and  luxury. 

We  now  have  to  consider  a  peculiar  manifestation 
which  belongs  to  a  class  usually  denominated  spirit- 
ual and  which  is  ever  supposed  to  be  personal  to  the 
individual  exhibiting  the  manifestation. 

Is  this  entirely  true? 

In  Ikhnaton,  the  successor  of  his  great  father,  reli- 
gious ideas  of  a  very  high  order  found  expression.^ 
In  a  broad  consideration  of  the  subject  a  great  moral 
teacher  should  be  ranked  with  a  great  religious 
teacher.  It  is  to  be  remarked  that  these  great  teach- 
ers occasionally  spring  from  the  dominant  class  and 
occasionally  from  the  sacerdotal  or  even  lower 
class.  One  of  the  great  fonts  of  inspiration  has 
ever  been  the  desert  of  Arabia  and  has  ever  been 
associated  with  misery,  want  and  hardship.  Long 
before  Ikhnaton,  Abraham  appeared.  The  divin- 
ity revealed  by  him  may  be  attacked  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  a  mere  tribal  god,  and  recognizes  the  exis- 
tence of  other  gods.     But  following  him  there  is  a 

1  Breasted,  Egypt. 


FIFTH  PERIOD 

1500  B.C.  TO    1000  B.C. 

long  list  of  men  directly  associated  with  the  desert 
of  Arabia  who  show  in  their  utterances  of  elevated 
thought  a  wonderful  grasp  of  great  truths^  and  in 
their  final  expression  (Mahomet)  nearly  conquer 
the  world.  Long  before  Ikhnaton,^  also  appear  the 
Vedic  hymns,^  rivalling  in  passages  the  sublimity  of 
his  ideal,  and  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  great 
VI  century,  from  this  same  race  which  produced  the 
Vedic  hymns,  gave  birth  to  a  religious  reformer 
(Buddha)  whose  disciples  to-day  in  numbers  sur- 
pass those  of  any  other  sect.  Zoroaster  belongs  to 
this  same  race.  China  gave  us  Confucius.  Is  It  pos- 
sible that  religious  manifestation  or  great  moral  ele- 
vation, as  among  the  philosophers  in  Greece,  can  be 
purely  Individual?  Must  it  not  be  regarded  as  one 
of  the  highest  manifestations  of  race  power? 

Ikhnaton's  revolt  ushered  in  a  brief  but  splendid 
outburst  of  art -and  literature — the  renaissance  of 
Egypt;  but  his  people  were  no  longer  the  pure  race, 
and  lofty  idealism  was  beyond  the  grasp  of  their 
dulled  minds.  Over  his  memory  sacerdotalism  drew 
its  pall.  His  works  were  destroyed,  his  name  was 
erased  from  monuments,  and  savage  hatred  blotted 
from  the  earth  all  memory  of  him  and  what  he  was. 

The  power  of  the  priest  seems  to  be  inversely  as 
the  vitality  and  force  of  the  race.  One  of  the  many 
signs  of  decay  in  a  people  is  the  prominence  of 
priestcraft  In  affairs.  Placed  as  the  priest  is  between 
finite  man  and  the  awful  infinite,  holding  in  his 

1  E.g.,  see  Micah  (700  B.C.),  VI,  6-8. 

2  Ikhnaton's  Hymn,  Breasted's  Egypt,  p.  371. 

3  Vedic  hymns.  See  Social  Environment  and  Moral  Progress,  A.  R. 
Wallace,  Chapter  III. 

1:533 


FIFTH  PERIOD 
1500  B.C.  TO  1000  B.C. 

hands  the  gift  of  eternal  life,  he  has  a  peculiar 
advantage  in  the  race  for  wealth,  and  as  the  other 
forces  which  have  built  up  the  nation  break  down, 
the  priest  grasps  that  earthly  dominion  which  afore- 
time he  professed  to  scorn.  The  revolt  of  Ikhnaton 
may  not  have  been  the  first,  but  it  was  the  last. 
"The  Golden  Bough"^  explains  how  magic  gave 
place  to  religion — how  the  sorcerer  gave  place  to 
the  priest — how  the  priest  became  the  king — how  the 
priest-king  became  the  god.  As  nearly  as  can  be 
described  through  the  twilight  of  early  Egyptian 
history,  this  seems  to  have  been  the  development  in 
the  upward  rush  of  race  life.  Menes  was  priest, 
king  and  god.  After  him,  while  the  Pharaoh 
remained  a  god,  the  priestly  office  was  withdrawn 
and  became  a  separate  institution;  and  as  Egypt  lost 
its  race  energy,  the  priesthood  centralized  its  scat- 
tered forces,  absorbed  the  wealth  of  the  land  and 
great  regions  of  the  land  itself,  until  the  pontiff  as  the 
representative  of  the  dominant  god  Ammon  repeats 
the  age-long,  hoary  cycle,  and  once  more,  as  we  shall 
see,  the  priest  becomes  at  the  same  time  king  and 
god. 

Thought  could  not  thrive  in  priest-ridden  Egypt.^ 
We  find  but  little  science  as  science.  We  find  almost 
no  philosophy.  The  same  dreadful  fate  threatened 
Greece,  but  was  mercifully  averted. 

In  his  absorption  in  religious  affairs  Ikhnaton  lost 
his  empire.  As  his  immediate  successors  were  not 
strong  enough  to  make  head  against  the  old  Egyptian 
priesthood,  his  religious  movement  was  blotted  out. 

1  J.  G.  Frazer.  sprazer,  Golden  Bough,  Vol.  I,  p.  231. 

CS43 


FIFTH  PERIOD 
1500  B.C.  TO   1000  B.C. 

Later  Egypt  became  a  prey  to  anarchy,  to  be  again 
gathered  together  and  united  under  Harmhab,  who 
is  seemingly  not  of  the  immediate  Pharaonic  family, 
although  he  was  a  member  of  the  old  nobility — the 
old  dominant  class.  And  again,  his  installation,  it 
must  be  noted,  is  due  to  priestly  influence,  and  his 
position  as  Pharaoh  consolidated  by  his  marriage. 

He  recognizes  the  power  which  raised  him  to  the 
throne  and  his  gifts  to  the  temples  are  large.  He 
also  reforms  the  administration  of  the  taxes,  a  thing 
which,  apparently,  the  Roman  emperors  were  never 
able  to  accomplish,  and  most  remarkable  of  all, 
arranges  a  regular  income  for  the  judges,  thus  for 
the  first  time  in  history  introducing  an  independent 
judiciary. 

Egypt,  thus  organized,  passed  on  to  his  successors, 
and  under  Seti  I  again  plays  the  role  of  conqueror. 
Slaves  in  numbers  are  again  introduced,  and  all  the 
time  in  the  Delta  the  Libyan  blood  is  becoming  more 
and  more  infused.  Seti's  generous  treatment  of  the 
native  Egyptian  employed  in  the  labor  of  public 
works  is  to  be  noted. 

Rameses  II  succeeds  his  father  Seti  and  is  widely 
known  as  a  conqueror,  but  does  not  exhibit  the  great 
military  genius  of  Thutmose  III.  He  marries  the 
daughter  of  the  Hittite  King.  Mercenary  troops 
are  largely  employed,  foreign  relations  are  close  and 
wide,  and  it  is  suggested  that  another  Hittite  prin- 
cess was  added  to  the  harem  of  Rameses.  With  his 
reign  the  aggressive  foreign  policy  of  Egypt  grad- 
ually ceases  and  the  growing  employment  of  merce- 
nary troops  would  indicate  that  foreign  blood  was 

ns53 


FIFTH  PERIOD 

1500  B.C.  TO  1000  B.C. 

producing  its  bad  effect  and  weakening  and  diluting 
the  original  stock.  The  Delta  becomes  more  and 
more  the  seat  of  royal  residence,  thus  taking  some- 
what from  the  importance  of  Thebes,  but  the  gifts 
of  Seti  and  Rameses  to  the  temples  were  enormous, 
so  much  so  that  the  possessions  of  the  priests  in 
Egypt  very  properly  may  be  compared  with  the  pos- 
sessions of  the  Roman  organization  in  France  at  the 
time  of  the  French  Revolution. 

The  influence  of  the  priesthood  in  Egyptian  affairs 
becomes  more  and  more  marked.  Foreigners  hold- 
ing positions  at  court  are  numerous.  The  country 
drifts  into  anarchy.    Assyria  seizes  the  crown. 

Again  the  old  Egyptian  blood  asserts  itself  and 
Setnakht  sets  the  Egyptian  house  once  more  in  order. 
Rameses  III  (1198-1167  B.C.)  turns  his  attention 
to  war,  forced  thereto  probably  by  the  pressure  of 
outside  peoples,  among  whom  are  the  peoples  of  the 
sea.  He  repulses  Libyan  attacks  on  the  Delta  and 
manifests  energy  and  capacity.  Commerce  is  en- 
couraged and  flourishes.  He  worked  in  harmony 
with  the  priests.  Of  the  church  property  the  priests 
of  Ammon  held  by  far  the  larger  share. 

The  historian  to  whom  this  brief  account  is  deeply 
indebted,  whose  story  is  told  convincingly,  notes  "at 
this  time,  while  all  was  outward  splendor  and  tran- 
quillity, and  the  whole  nation  was  celebrating  the 
King  who  had  saved  the  Empire,  the  forces  of  decay 
which  had  for  generations  been  slowly  gathering  in 
the  state  were  rapidly  reaching  the  acute  stage."^ 

^  For  an  instance  of  a  similar  statement,  see  Draper,  Intellectual  De- 
velopment of  Europe,  Vol.  I,  p.  77;  and  also  Ferrero,  Greatness  and 
Decline  of  Rome,  Vol.  V,  p.  iv. 

1:56: 


FIFTH  PERIOD 

1500  B.C.  TO    1000  B.C. 

Rameses  IV  recognizes  the  power  of  the  priests 
and  our  before  quoted  authority  notes  that  "the 
sources  of  that  virile  political  life  that  had  sprung 
up  with  the  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos  were  now 
exhausted." 

What  were  the  forces  of  decay  which  had  been 
slowly  gathering  and  which  are  referred  to  by  our 
authority?  What  were  the  sources  of  that  virile 
political  life  that  had  sprung  up  with  the  Hyksos? 
It  would  seem  that  these  sources  w^ere  not  far  to  seek. 
For  over  two  thousand  years  Egypt  in  her  isolation 
had  retained  and  multiplied  her  original  population, 
and  for  a  great  portion  of  the  time  her  people  had 
acted  as  a  united  race.  First  the  broils  of  anarchy 
destroy  many  of  the  best,  and  in  the  loss  of  unity  of 
action  the  kingdom  sacrifices  much  of  its  momentum. 
Later  the  inroads  of  the  foreigners,  whether  by  hos- 
tile or  peaceful  intrusion,  still  further  weaken  the 
original  blood.  Her  career  of  empire,  foreign  war, 
and  conquest  sweeps  away  thousands  of  her  strong- 
est and  best,  introduces  foreigners  by  the  thousands 
as  slaves,  and  we  shall  see  in  the  succeeding  period 
her  degenerate  blood  permitting  the  destruction  of 
a  country  whose  career,  owing  to  the  original  and 
continued  impetus,  is  the  longest  of  recorded  time. 

Weakened  as  the  race  was  at  the  beginning  of  this 
cycle,  1500  B.C.,  we  have  seen  how  unity  of  action 
enabled  it  to  conquer  from  the  Euphrates  to  the 
fourth  cataract,  almost  the  whole  of  the  then  known 
world;  and  Egypt  was  destroyed,  as  Assyria  and 
Rome  were  later,  not  by  foreign  attack,  but  by  her 
own  act — race  suicide. 


FIFTH  PERIOD 

1500  B.C.  TO  1000  B.C. 

Under  Rameses  IX  the  high  priest  of  Ammon 
seems  to  be  a  veritable  ruler,  and  the  Temple  collects 
its  own  taxes. 

Under  Rameses  XII  the  Delta  becomes  separated 
from  Egypt  under  a  revolting  ruler,  and  the  high 
priest  of  Ammon  remains  master  of  Thebes,  the 
Pharaoh  seemingly  having  retired  to  Nubia. 

Finally  the  last  of  the  Ramesids  is  followed  by  the 
high  priest  of  Ammon,  and  as  Pharaoh  he  becomes 
not  only  Priest  but  also  King  and  GodP 

From  this  time  on  Egypt  steadily  declines,  and  in 
the  year  945  B.  C.  the  Libyans,  who  apparently  had 
been  all-powerful  in  Egypt  for  some  years,  became 
the  titular  sovereigns. 


SIXTH  PERIOD 

1000  B.C.  TO  500  B.C. 

The  Libyan  power,  dominant  for  some  years,  is 
acknowledged  in  the  year  945.  The  Libyans  are  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Nubians.  One  foreigner  succeeds 
another,  while  the  country  itself  is  a  prey  to  all  the 
calamities  of  anarchy. 

The  Assyrians  threaten  Egypt.  Esarhaddon 
finally  becomes  over-lord,  at  least  of  lower  Egypt. 
With  varying  fortunes  the  Assyrians  maintain  their 
hold  upon  the  land  and  plunder  Thebes.  But  just 
at  the  close  of  this  epoch,  the  sixth  period  of  five  hun- 
dred years,  Psamtik  I,  a  man  of  great  ability,  rises  to 
power,  and  the  XXVI  Dynasty  closes  the  history  of 

^  "The  Golden  Bough,"  Frazer. 

1:58: 


SIXTH  PERIOD 

1000  B.C.  TO  500  B.C. 

Egypt.     A  revival  of  Egyptian  art  punctuated  the 
restoration  of  civil  affairs. 

In  the  year  525  Egypt  is  conquered  by  the  Per- 
sians. A  few  disturbances  take  place  after  this,  but 
the  story  is  told. 


This  brief  statement  has  of  course  been  prepared 
with  reference  to  the  consideration  of  the  direct  influ- 
ence of  race  purity  upon  race  life. 

We  have  seen  in  a  rough  way  the  unaided  achieve- 
ment, the  intellectual  force  of  the  Egyptian  people. 
To-day  in  their  degradation  we  despise  them  and  for- 
get the  benefits  which  they  conferred  upon  us.  It 
seems  impossible — it  seems  incredible  that  the  same 
people  to  whom  we  owe  so  much  should  be  the  peo- 
ple of  whom  at  present  we  think  so  little.  In  point 
of  fact,  they  are  not  the  same  people. 

Darwin  notes  that  the  result  of  cross-mating  seems 
to  be  to  evoke  old-time  characteristics  which,  in  the 
pure  stock  of  either  parent,  though  carried  along, 
are  latent  and  dominated  by  the  later  and  higher 
qualities.^  The  Egyptian  to-day  is  a  thorough  mon- 
grel, and  while  still  called  by  the  same  name,  has 
reverted  to  any  number  of  prehistoric  types,  and  has 
become  utterly  different  from  his  great  ancestors. 

In  its  pure  state  of  olden  time  the  race  was  won- 
derful in  achievement,  and  to-day,  whichever  way  we 
turn,  we  meet  it  in  its  ever  enduring  gifts  to  us. 

The  architect  who  makes  use  of  the  disengaged 
column  to  support  a  weight  must  salute  the  Egyptian 

1  Animals  and  Plants,  etc.,  Vol.  II,  pp.  50,  51.    Cited  more  fully  above. 

1:59: 


SIXTH  PERIOD 

1000  B.C.  TO  500  B.C. 

who  invented  it/  for  the  architect  in  almost  every 
instance  would  be  incapable  of  so  doing.  Should  he 
fling  an  arch  across  a  void  he  must  also  make  his 
obeisance  to  the  Egyptian  who  taught  him  how  to  do 
it.  Should  any  one  of  us  date  a  letter  he  must  pause  to 
thank  the  Egyptian  who,  five  thousand  years  ago, 
invented  the  calendar  which  we  now  use. 

The  laundress  who  irons  the  table  cloth  or  the 
linen  sheet  and  is  familiar  with  the  tissue,  never  saw 
and  could  not  dream  of  the  gossamer  fabric  which 
the  Egyptians  wove  thousands  of  years  before  she 
was  born.  The  collegian  who  has  failed  in  his  exam- 
ination in  geometry  and  abuses  Euclid,  has  spoken 
ill  of  the  wrong  individual,^  for  it  was  a  nameless 
and  long  dead  Egyptian  who  taught  Euclid;  and  if 
by  good  hap  the  collegian  should  get  as  far  as  conic 
sections,^  and  again  deplore  the  unkindness  of  Provi- 
dence, who  first  gave  some  Greek  a  knowledge  of 
their  properties,  he  would  again  be  mistaken,  for  it 
was  an  Egyptian  who  taught  the  Greek. 

Out  on  our  Western  plains  the  young  American 
engineer  has  again  and  again  fumbled  over  his  plans 
for  an  irrigation  scheme.  Beside  him  stood  the  spirit 
of  an  old  Egyptian  sympathizing  with  his  mistakes, 
rejoicing  in  his  successes ;  since,  ages  before  the  young 
American  was  thought  of,  the  Egyptian  had  en- 
countered the  same  difficulties  and  solved  the  same 
problems.  Shoulder  to  shoulder  with  our  revered 
Washington,  more  than  one  great  Egyptian  spirit 

1  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt. 

2Touraeff,  from  a   papyrus   dated   about   iSoo  B.C.,  gives  the  formula 
for  the  cubic  contents  of  a  truncated  pyramid,  which  is  not  in  Euclid. 
3 Story  of  Euclid,  p.  17,  Frankland. 

[:6o3 


SIXTH  PERIOD 

1000  B.C.  TO  500  B.C. 

Stands  who  had  the  fortitude  to  endure  calamity,  the 
faith  to  look  beyond  it,  and,  persevering  unto  the  end, 
had  rallied  the  last  remnants  of  his  race  and  re- 
deemed his  country  from  internal  discord  or  foreign 
domination. 

The  Egyptian  intelligence  was  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  faculties  which  ever  animated  and 
inspired  man.  Their  statues,  which  wasteful  war 
has  overturned;  their  masonry,  which  broils  have 
attempted  to  root  out,  still  stand  in  their  battered 
fragments  to  testify  that  the  poet  was  right,  nor 
Mars  his  sword  nor  war's  quick  fire  shall  burn  the 
living  record  of  their  memory. 

Can  you  think  of  such  a  race  as  this,  a  vital,  breath- 
ing and  inspiring  force  in  the  whole  of  our  civiliza- 
tion, as  dead  and  gone?  It  is  well  for  us  to  pause  and 
recall  our  deep  debt. 

So  sunken  is  the  Egyptian  of  to-day,  so  fallen  from 
his  high  estate,  so  thoroughly  has  he  reverted  to  a 
prehistoric  past,  that  Petrie  says:  "Each  generation 
of  men  of  low  civilization  can  be  advanced  beyond 
the  preceding  one  only  by  a  very  small  percentage;" 
and  referring  to  the  present  effort  made  by  the  Eng- 
lish to  educate  the  fellaheen,  and  from  observation 
and  experience  of  Egyptian  peasants,  says:^  "The 
harm  is  that  you  manufacture  idiots.^  Some  of  the 
peasantry  are  taught  to  read  and  write,  and  the  result 
of  this  burden  which  their  fathers  bore  not  is  that 
they  become  fools.     I  cannot  say  this  too  plainly: 


1  Smithsonian  Report,   1895,   p.   596.     Quoted  by  Sumner  in   Folkways, 
630. 

2  Confirme 
M.  Lythgoe. 


p.  630. 

2  Confirmed  to  the  writer,  after  many  years  of  observation,  by  Albert 


n6i3 


SIXTH  PERIOD 

1000  B.C.  TO  500  B.C. 

An  Egyptian  who  has  had  reading  and  writing 
thrust  on  him  is,  in  every  case  that  I  have  met  with, 
half  witted,  or  incapable  of  taking  care  of  himself. 
His  intellect  and  health  have  been  undermined  by 
the  forcing  of  education." 

If  we  should  conclude  that  the  purity  of  race  blood 
so  far  as  the  Egyptians  were  concerned  was  all- 
important,  would  not  this  conclusion  be  just? 

We  have  now  examined  the  story  of  one  race.  Let 
us  turn  to  the  examination  of  another — our  own.  In 
this  we  have  a  peculiar  interest.  We  must  not  think 
for  a  moment  that  the  race  to  which  we  belong  is  at 
present  and  for  the  first  and  only  time  dominating 
the  world.  It  is  not  true.  Long  before  we  were 
thought  of,  the  race  had  appeared  upon  the  stage  of 
history,  and  tribes  or  clans  of  it  had  waxed  and 
waned.  Our  struggles,  our  vicissitudes  for  the  last 
thousand  years  have  by  our  elder  brethren  been 
faced  before. 


SEVENTH  PERIOD 

500  B.C.  TO  THE  Year  One 

Persian — Greek — Roman — these  three  are  one. 
And  these  three  are  blood  of  our  blood  and  flesh  of 
our  flesh. 

First  the  Persian.^ 

In  the  conquest  of  Egypt  the  white  race  thrusts 
itself  upon  the  scene,  and  for  the  next  cycle  of  five 
hundred  years  from  the  year  525  B.  C.  to  the  year  one. 

1  "Persians,  noblest  of  Iranians."    Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  p.  237. 

1:623 


SEVENTH  PERIOD 
500  B.C.  TO  THE  Year  One 

it  occupies  the  stage.  Three  times  during  this  com- 
paratively short  period,  in  succession,  its  three 
branches  or  divisions  conquer  the  known  vv^orld. 

Assyria  dominated  the  Near  East.  The  Far  East 
was  out  of  touch  and  out  of  sight.  ,  For  a  long  time 
Nineveh  had  held  sway.  Her  sturdy  warriors,  whose 
pictures  unearthed  by  Layard  reveal  great  muscular 
development  and  grim,  merciless  faces,  subdued  and 
laid  waste  cities  and  kingdoms  until  the  whole  world, 
revolting  at  unheard  of  cruelty,  hated  them  and 
Nineveh  and  all  her  works  with  a  perfect  hatred. 
But  her  very  victories  caused  her  destruction.  His- 
torians are  a  unit  in  ascribing  her  overthrow  to  the 
loss  of  the  sturdiest  of  her  population  in  her  constant 
war.  This  left  the  feeble  to  continue  and  of  necessity 
to  destroy  the  race.  Nineveh  literally  committed 
suicide;  and  when  Cyrus,  uniting  the  Medes  and 
Persians,  burst  upon  her  there  were  none  left  to 
resist. 

That  capacity  for  government  and  organization 
which  is  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  white 
race,  remodelled  the  afflicted  world  and  gave  to  it 
peace  under  universal  sway,  coupled  with  regularity 
and  method  in  administration. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  Persians  is  largely  derived 
from  Greek  sources,  colored  by  Greek  hatred,  and 
the  picture  left  on  our  minds  is  that  of  the  wonderful 
resistance  which  a  few  free  Greeks  made  to  the 
onslaught  of  the  untold  myriads  of  the  great  King. 
To  us  it  seems  as  if  Themistocles  had  flung  back  the 
whole  Persian  empire  in  defeat  and  ruin.  This  is 
not  so.    For  years  that  war  was  waged  and  when  the 

[63] 


SEVENTH  PERIOD 
500  B.C.  TO  THE  Year  One 

Persian  retired  he  withdrew  the  distant  expedition 
with  power  scarcely  abated  and  with  vast  resources 
so  little  touched  that  the  experience  seems  to  have 
been  a  painful  incident  rather  than  an  irreparable 
calamity. 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

As  for  the  Greeks,  one  of  the  amazing  things  in 
history  is  the  suddenness  of  their  downfall.^  In  a 
few  years  after  the  time  of  Pericles  the  result  of 
ignoring  the  wise  customs  which  had  preserved  the 
purity  of  the  Athenian  blood  became  evident,^  and 
democracy,  which  always  feels  itself  equal  to  any 
task,  and  often  lacks  judgment  in  men,  had  confided 
its  greatest  efifort  to  an  incompetent  and  met  destruc- 
tion, not  at  the  hands  of  Xerxes,  who  had  seized  the 
city  and  destroyed  the  Temples  of  the  Immortal 
Gods,  but  at  the  hands  of  the  poor  creature  Nicias,^ 
and  with  him  Athens  perished  politically  in  the 
agonies  of  the  far  distant  quarries  of  Syracuse. 

Before  600  B.  C  the  Greeks  had  colonized"*  the 
western  littoral  of  Asia  Minor,  the  northern  shore 
of  the  Black  Sea;  their  same  blood  was  found  in 
Thrace  and  Macedon;  they  had  pushed  westward 
until  Southern  Italy  was  called  Great  Greece.    Sicily 

iNote. 

2  Demetrius,  King  of  Macedon,  295-287  B.C.,  testifies:  "There  was  not, 
in  my  time,  in  Athens,  one  great  or  noble  mind."  Draper,  Intel.  Dev.  of 
Europe,  Vol.  I,  p.  160. 

3  Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  p.  466.  *  Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  p.  87. 

1:64] 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

too  was  theirs.  They  had  their  settlement  in  Egypt 
(Naucratis,  the  mother  of  ships).  Northern  Africa 
at  Cyrene  knew  them,  and  the  iEgean  Islands, 
Southern  France  and  Eastern  Spain.  From  the  time 
of  the  Persian  wars  to  the  time  of  Alexander  this 
population  must  have  numbered  all  told  seven  mil- 
lions or  more.^  "Most  of  the  Grecian  States  required 
that  their  citizens  should  match  with  none  but  citi- 
zens; and  the  Athenians,  if  a  citizen  married  a  for- 
eigner, doomed  the  children  to  slavery;  and  if  a 
foreigner  married  a  free  woman  of  Athens  it  was  law- 
ful for  any  person  to  prosecute  him,  and  if  convicted 
he  was  sold  for  a  slave.  If  a  citizen  married  a 
woman  that  was  not  free  he  was  fined  a  thousand 
drachmas."^  So  long,  therefore,  as  they  kept  their 
independence,  the  Greeks  seem  as  a  rule  to  have 
limited  citizenship  to  Greeks  and  to  have  often  re- 
stricted it  to  Greeks  of  the  same  community,  and 
never  while  Greek  independence  lasted  to  have 
freely  allowed  barbarians  (foreigners)  to  become 
citizens. 

On  the  other  hand,  from  time  immemorial,  the 
venturesome,  the  daring  quality  of  the  white  race 
had  led  sturdy  young  Greeks  continually  to  engage 
themselves  as  mercenaries  in  foreign  employment. 
We  find  them  at  a  remote  period  serving  as  soldiers 
for  the  Pharaoh  of  Egypt.^  In  later  times  large 
numbers  took  employment  under  the  King  of 
Persia.  Of  course  this  continual  drain  upon  the 
strongest  of  the  Greek  youth  had  a  deleterious  effect 

iFinlay,  Hist.  Greece,  Vol.  I,  p.  15. 

2  Critical  Essay  on  Marriage  Rites  of  the  Greeks,  Thomas  Salmon,  p.  216. 

2  And  see  Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  p.  234,  note  i. 

1:6?  3 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

and  in  a  small  way  repeated  the  experience  of 
Assyria,  which  has  already  been  noted. 

After  the  Persian  wars  Athens  relaxed  her  rules 
and  thereafter  for  about  thirty  years  strangers  were 
freely  admitted  as  Athenian  citizens/  It  is  reck- 
oned that  thirty  thousand  at  least  were  in  this  way 
added  to  the  population,  and,  granting  that  the 
population  of  Athens  numbered  one  hundred  thou- 
sand, one  authority  states  that  out  of  every  ten  such 
inhabitants  four  were  slaves,  one  or  two  were 
strangers,  and  four  or  five  of  the  old  stock. 

It  is  conceded  nevertheless  that  the  average  intelli- 
gence in  Athens  at  this  time  was  very  high, — so  high 
that  in  the  period  of  a  hundred  years  after  the  Per- 
sian wars  Athens  alone  produced  more  great  men  than 
the  whole  of  Europe  has  since  brought  forth.  This 
does  not  mean  that  the  dregs^  of  the  Athenian  popu- 
lation were  any  better  than  the  dregs  of  any  other 
population.  The  proportion  of  degenerates,  crim- 
inal insane  and  the  dependent  class  was  probably 
greater  in  Athens  in  the  time  of  Pericles  than  it  was 
in  Elizabeth's  England.  It  merely  means  that  many 
men  of  surpassing  intelligence  at  Athens  elevated  the 
standard  of  the  mass.  Notwithstanding  this,  democ- 
racy in  Athens  was  just  as  apt  to  be  carried  away  by 
its  emotions,  just  as  incapable  of  pursuing  for  years 
a  determined  and  fixed  policy,  as  the  population  of  a 
democratic  state  to-day.  The  able  leader  in  Athens 
wasted  the  greater  part  of  his  force  first  in  inciting 
his  people  to  adopt  a  proper  line  of  action,  and  sec- 
ond in  constant  effort  to  keep   them   resolute  and 

1  Note.  -  Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  p.  421. 

[66] 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

Staunch,  and  then  in  addition  he  had  to  have  suffi- 
cient energy  left  to  conduct  state  affairs.  This  im- 
plied a  man  of  great  physical  as  well  as  intellectual 
power. 

Historians  express  regret  that  Pericles  did  not 
institute  a  form  of  government  which  would  have 
been  capable  of  surviving  him.  Not  a  single  histo- 
rian indicates  the  form  of  government  he  should  have 
instituted.  In  point  of  fact,  Pericles  could  well  have 
said  with  Roger  Bacon  that  he  would  have  contrib- 
uted more  to  the  advancement  of  the  world  had  he 
not  been  held  back  by  the  universal  ignorance,  and 
this  ignorance  does  not  refer  to  the  absence  of  learn- 
ing from  books.  It  refers  to  the  absence  of  intellec- 
tual capacity,  and  the  problem  to-day  is  just  the  same 
as  the  problem  of  Athens  two  thousand  three  hun- 
dred years  ago.  To  obtain  greater  intelligence  the 
reproduction  of  the  human  race  must  be  in  accord- 
ance with  the  Divine  law.  Advancement  must  come 
slowly,  little  by  little.  No  one  can  pass  to  his  child 
his  own  personal  attainments.  If  he  could,  our  little 
ones  would  be  born  with  the  ability  to  read  and 
write.  All  that  can  be  given  is  a  trifling  matter,  a 
predisposition  perhaps  to  acquirement  and  not  the 
acquirement  itself,  for  Petrie  is  correct  in  his  state- 
ment.^ 

The  fall  of  Athens  is  a  sad  story.  Immediately  on 
the  death  of  Pericles,  power  was  sought  by  various 
demagogues.  Cleon  the  tanner  misled  Athens  for 
years.  The  average  Athenian  preferred  the  mis- 
takes of  mediocrity,  which  he  could  understand  and 

1  See  Supra,  page  6i. 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

with  which  he  could  sympathize,  to  the  achievements 
of  genius,  which  were  to  him  incomprehensible  and 
with  whose  patient  anticipation  of  benefits  far  in  the 
future  and  to  be  obtained  by  long  time  and  persis- 
tent effort  he  had  no  sympathy  whatever.  About  450 
B.  C.  the  Athenians  passed  a  law  limiting  citizenship 
to  those  both  of  whose  parents  had  been  Athenian 
citizens.  Pericles  seems  to  have  understood  the 
importance  of  tradition,  if  not  the  question  of  race. 

Able  men  there  were,  born  leaders  of  men,  but 
these  the  Athenians  in  great  measure  murdered  or 
banished.  Even  a  partial  list  is  appalling.  The  vic- 
tor at  Salamis,  the  man  who  dreamed  Athenian 
empire  and  laid  the  deep  foundation  on  which  later 
the  Empire  was  built,^  the  greatest  leader  in  war  and 
peace  the  city  ever  had,  was  condemned  for  treason, 
and  although  a  man  of  dreams,  Themistocles  never 
dreamed  treason.  He  ended  his  days  the  servant  of 
the  Persian  king  whose  fleet  he  had  destroyed. 

Cimon,  who  crushed  the  remnants  of  that  fleet,  was 
ostracized,  as  was  Aristides.  Phidias  died  in  prison. 
Pericles  was  fined  and  cashiered,  but  as  they  were 
utterly  unable  to  conduct  affairs  without  him,  he  was 
"recalled,"  in  the  better  sense  of  the  term.  Fortu- 
nately for  him,  he  then  died  of  the  plague.  His  sur- 
viving son,  one  of  the  generals  commanding  the  vic- 
torious Athenian  fleet,  was,  on  his  return  to  Athens, 
immediately  accused  and  put  to  death  on  a  ridiculous 
charge,  thus  extinguishing  this  splendid  line — and 
talent  is  hereditary! 

The  citizens  of  Athens,  like  Death  in  Horace, 

1  Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  pp.  280,  354. 

1:683 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

Struck  with  an  equal  foot.  The  whole  mass  of  the 
citizens  of  Mitylene,  condemned  to  execution,  was 
saved  by  a  scant  margin.  To  surpass  the  horror  of 
this  contemplated  barbarity  was  reserved  for  a 
chosen  few. 

Alcibiades  was  driven  to  the  Spartans,  who  had 
the  sense  to  follow  his  advice  and  Athens  at  Syracuse 
was  undone.  In  her  teeth  he  later,  for  a  brief  space, 
took  command  of  her  fleet,  destroyed  the  fleet  of  her 
enemy  and  gave  her  once  again  control  of  the  sea, 
whereupon  the  Athenians  elected  this  same  traitor 
General  or  Strategus,  and  gave  him  back  his  confis- 
cated fortune.  They  then  again  cashiered  him,  and 
he  again  fled.  The  closing  incident  surpasses  the 
best  effort  of  the  comic  and  tragic  Muse  combined. 
Alcibiades  had  retired  to  his  place  on  the  Helles- 
pont. The  Spartan  fleet  lay  near  by.  Sent  to  attack 
them,  the  Athenian  fleet  made  harbor  near  Alcibi- 
ades' place  of  retreat.  Day  after  day  the  Athenians 
went  forth,  endeavoring  to  induce  the  Spartans  to 
give  battle.  Battle  was  refused.  The  Athenians  then 
returned  and  were  accustomed  to  leave  their  ships 
and  go  ashore.  Noting  this,  Alcibiades  warned  them, 
but  to  his  advice  they  paid  no  attention.  The  Spar- 
tan leader,  however,  seized  the  opportunity  and 
destroyed  the  Athenian  fleet.  It  is  said  that  no  one 
in  Athens  slept  the  night  word  came  of  the  final 
catastrophe.^  Too  late  Democracy  was  alert!  The 
silver  cord  was  loosed,  the  golden  bowl  was  broken. 
Ability  must  for  its  best  expression  be  united  with 
character,   and   an   education  which   tends   to  pro- 

iBury,  Greece,  Vol.  II,  p.  58. 

1:69] 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

duce  or  cultivate  character  is  most  to  be  desired. 
This  was  the  opinion  of  Socrates,  who  felt  that  the 
character  of  the  State  was  the  expression  of  the 
character  of  the  individual  citizen  taken  in  the  aggre- 
gate, and  that  it  was  more  important  for  the  individ- 
ual citizen  to  be  grounded  in  the  principles  of  right 
and  morality  than  in  anything  else.  He  was  a  coura- 
geous man,  and  a  man  of  intelligence  so  exalted  that 
the  whole  world  could  scarcely  boast  his  like.  Athe- 
nian democracy  reached  its  culmination,  said  its  last 
word,  when  it  murdered  him. 

O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem!  Thou  that  killest  the 
prophets  and  stonest  them  which  are  sent  unto  thee!^ 

Athens!  Jerusalem!  It  makes  no  difference 
whither  you  go  or  when.  Date  and  place  are  alike 
indififerent.  It  is  the  same  monotony  of  error;  the 
same  insistence  on  error's  repetition.  It  is  amazing 
that  men  will  neither  learn  from  the  woes  of  others 
nor  from  their  own  calamities. 

Yes,  it  is  easier  for  us  to  repeat  mistakes  than  to 
undertake  laborious  study  to  avoid  them. 

The  percentage  of  talent  in  Athens  was  larger 
than  in  England  or  America  to-day,  but  yet  it  was 
unable  to  leaven  the  mass  and  was  lost  in  the  igno- 
rant vote.  The  government  was  literally  mob  rule 
with  few  or  none  of  the  safeguards  which  our  fore- 
fathers placed  about  the  function  of  authority,  and 
it  was  a  signal  failure. 

We  may  note  in  passing  that  our  forefathers 
placed  safeguards  about  the  exercise  or  function  of 
authority  to  protect  authority  from  the  populace  and 

1  Matthew,  XXIII,  37. 

1:70] 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

placed  few  or  no  safeguards  about  the  populace,  for 
with  universal  suffrage  the  populace  needed  none, 
but  proper  authority  stood  in  sore  need  of  guard  and 
bulwark. 

The  Athenian  democracy  could  vote  but  could  not 
govern,  could  declare  war  but  could  not  conduct  it, 
and  having  rashly  ventured  in,  knew  not  when  or 
how  to  make  peace. 

But  against  the  gloom  of  this  dark  background 
Greek  genius  glows  effulgent.  Supreme  in  art,  in 
literature  great,  in  philosophy  immortal,  Athens 
amazes  at  once  in  her  dignity  and  in  her  baseness. 
The  stock  was  splendid  and  could  it  have  been  con- 
served, the  world  might  have  told  another  and  a  bet- 
ter tale. 

Bury  calls  particular  attention  to  a  danger  no  less 
terrible  than  the  Persian  invasion  which  threatened 
Greece  toward  the  close  of  the  VI  century.^  "This 
danger  lay  in  the  dissemination  of  a  new  religion, 
which,  if  it  had  gained  the  upper  hand,  as  at  one 
time  it  seemed  likely  to  do,  would  have  pressed  with 
a  dead  and  stifling  weight  upon  Greece."  The  men- 
ace of  its  mysticism  threatened  the  freedom  of  Greek 
thought.  "Both  scientific  and  religious  movements 
have  the  same  object — to  solve  the  mystery  of  exis- 
tence; but  the  religious  craving  demands  a  shorter 
road  and  immediate  satisfaction." 

The  Orphic  initiation  and  the  Orphic  rules  saved 
man's  soul  alive.  Thus  and  thus  only  could  man  escape 
judgment  to  come.  The  assurance  was  positive.  Its 
influence  enormous.     Men  yearned  with  an  intoler- 

1  Bury,  History  of  Greece,  Vol  I,  pp.  334  et  seq. 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

able  yearning  to  believe,  and  the  belief  swept  through 
Greece  itself.  "The  Delphic  priesthood  had,  doubt- 
less, an  instinct  that  the  propagation  of  the  Orphic 
doctrines  might  ultimately  redound  to  its  own  ad- 
vantage. Although  the  new  religion  had  arisen 
when  the  aristocracies  were  passing  away,  and  had 
addressed  itself  to  the  masses,  it  is  certain  that,  if  it 
had  gained  the  upper  hand,  it  would  have  lent  itself 
to  the  support  of  aristocracy  and  tyranny."  .  .  .  "The 
antidote  to  the  Orphic  religion  was  the  philosophy 
of  Ionia.  In  Asiatic  Greece,  that  religion  never  took 
root;  and  most  fortunately  the  philosophical  move- 
ment, the  separation  of  science  from  theology,  had 
begun  before  the  Orphic  movement  was  dissemi- 
nated. .  .  .  Ionia,  having  founded  philosophy,  res- 
cued Greece  from  the  tyranny  of  a  religion  inter- 
preted by  priests." 

Xenophanes  of  Colophon  showed  the  absurdity  of 
gods  made  in  man's  image.  He  refused  to  regard 
Homer  and  Hesiod  as  the  Greek  bible.  His  god  was 
the  whole  cosmos,  but  he  left  the  people  their  loved 
gods  of  the  water  and  the  wood — emanations  from 
the  great  divinity.  He  scorned  mysticism  and  so- 
called  revelation,  and  named  the  Orphic  priests  the 
impostors  which  they  were.  Others  took  up  the  con- 
test, and  from  the  struggle  philosophy  emerged 
tiumphant. 

"We  may  say  with  propriety  that  a  great  peril  was 
averted  from  Greece  by  the  healthful  influence  of  the 
immortal  thinkers  of  Ionia.  But  this,  after  all,  is 
only  a  superficial  way  of  putting  the  fact.  If  we  look 
deeper  we  see  that  the  victory  of  philosophy  over  the 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

doctrines  of  the  priests  was  simply  the  expression  of 
the  Greek  spirit,  which  Inevitably  sought  its  highest 
satisfaction  in  the  full  expansion  of  its  own  powers 
and  the  free  light  of  reason." 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  struggle  for  freedom 
of  thought  took  place  in  Greece  at  the  period  when 
its  race  vigor  was  unimpaired,  when  it  was  tri- 
umphantly thrusting  back  the  Persian  invasion  and 
when  its  manifestations  of  race  power  had  nearly 
reached  their  climax. 

Sparta^  gives  us  care  in  reproduction,  but  an  edu- 
cation which  destroyed  even  hope  of  man's  capacity 
for  intellectual  betterment. 

Athens,  reckless  in  reproduction,  nevertheless  gave 
us  some  education,  however  faulty.  Her  union  of 
training  and  race  purity  gave  results  so  splendid  as 
to  destroy  even  doubt  of  man's  capacity  for  intellec- 
tual betterment. 

The  confirmation  of  the  fact  of  the  possibility  of 
man's  intellectual  elevation  and  improvement  is 
above  all  other  things  the  great  gift  of  Greece  to 
mankind.^ 


The  Intense  rivalry  among  the  citizens  of  each 
Greek  city  and  the  intense  rivalry  between  city  and 
city  prevented,  save  on  the  memorable  occasion  of 
the  Persian  invasion,  anything  like  united  action  on 
the  part  of  Greece  Itself.  But  lingering  among  the 
Macedonian  mountains  a  portion  of  the  race  had  re- 

1  See  last  paragraph  of  note,  p.  64.     Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  pp.  141,  147. 

2  Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  II,  p.  439. 

1:731 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

tained  the  simple  manners  of  their  forefathers  and 
their  kingly  form  of  government.  At  the  time  of 
Philip  the  blood  in  Macedon  and  Thrace  was  probably 
more  pure  than  that  of  any  part  of  Greece  proper.^ 

The  philosopher  Xenophanes,  a  contemporary  of 
both  Philip  and  his  son,  bears  unintentional  but  con- 
vincing testimony  to  this  fact.  In  discussing  man's 
notion  of  God  he  insists  that  each  race  represents  the 
Great  Supreme  under  its  own  shape:  the  negro  with 
a  flat  nose  and  black  face,  the  Thracian  with  "blue 
eyes  and  a  ruddy  complexion" — our  own  character- 
istics! 

Alexander  testifies  in  his  great  speech  at  Babylon 
that  his  people  were  shepherds  and  husbandmen,  and 
probably  he  as  a  boy  had  heard  the  old  folk-songs 
sung  and  the  old  folk-lore  told  by  his  nurse  and  her 
people,  who  still  retained  and  handed  down  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  as  the  peasantry  ever  will,  the 
legendary  lore  of  their  ancestors.  And  in  those  songs 
and  in  that  folk-lore  the  Macedonian  chieftain,  like 
the  Amal  in  "Hypatia,"  traced  his  descent  from  the 
gods.  The  mingling  of  God  and  man  was  no  new 
idea  to  the  white  race.^  The  Greeks  had  ever  wor- 
shipped their  heroes  and  the  Macedonians  kept  the 
memory  of  their  heroes  green.  And  the  hero  was 
always  of  divine  descent. 

Force  was  needed  to  unite  Greece,  and  Philip 
applied  it.  Philip  slain,  foolish  Greece  thought  to 
throw  off  the  sway  of  his  boyish  successor,  but  en- 
countered a  greater  might  than  that  of  Philip,  and 
the  lesson  of  Thebes  proved  suflicient. 

1  Alexander,  Wheeler,  p.  lo.  -  The  Golden  Bough,  Frazer. 

1:74: 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

When  Francis  Galton  wrote  his  great  book  on 
Hereditary  Genius  he  premised  by  saying:  "I  have 
been  conscious  of  no  slight  misgiving  that  I  v^as  com- 
mitting a  kind  of  sacrilege  whenever,  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  materials  for  this  book,  I  had  occasion  to 
take  the  measurement  of  modern  intellects  vastly 
superior  to  my  own,  or  to  criticise  the  genius  of  the 
most  magnificent  historical  specimens  of  our  race. 
It  is  a  process  that  constantly  recalled  to  me  a  once 
familiar  sentiment  in  byegone  days  of  African 
travel,  when  I  used  to  take  altitudes  of  the  huge 
cliffs  that  domineered  above  me  as  I  travelled  along 
their  bases,  or  to  map  the  mountainous  landmarks 
of  unvisited  tribes,  that  loomed  in  faint  grandeur 
beyond  my  actual  horizon." 

For  any  man  to  concentrate  for  any  length  of 
time  on  a  particular  task  is  exhausting.  The  long 
training  for  the  prize-fight,  the  struggle,  the  victory 
or  defeat,  is  invariably  followed  by  a  physical  re- 
action which  almost  always  leads  to  dissipation. 
After  the  boat  race  as  great  care  should  be  given  to 
the  college  athlete  to  allow  him  slowly  to  relax  and 
to  permit  his  exaggerated  muscles  of  heart  and  limb 
to  resume  their  proper  form,  as  is  spent  in  cultivating 
them  to  a  pitch  above  normal.  It  is  the  same  with 
intense  intellectual  activity.  No  really  able  man  can 
ever  be  idle.  Even  against  his  grain,  the  great  self- 
exciting  dynamo  which  is  his  brain  compels  him  to 
active  exertion  whether  he  will  or  no,  and  frequently 
denies  him  the  rest  which  he  knows  to  be  physically 
necessary.  To  sustain  the  unremitting  toil  or  to  be 
able  to  secure  a  moment's  relaxation,  great  men  in  the 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

past  have  sought  a  counter-irritant  in  the  shape  of  a 
stimulant,  for  to  them  repose  is  impossible,  and  their 
only  relief  is  to  match  excitement  by  excitement. 

Alexander  was  one  of  these  men.  Dowered  with 
supreme  intelligence  solidly  founded  upon  prema- 
turely ripened  judgment  and  common  sense,  he 
seems  to  have  eagerly  sought  for  and  to  have  pa- 
tiently received  and  considered  the  advice  given  by 
the  able  men  who  had  been  his  father's  counsellors. 
The  supreme  test  of  ability  is  its  capacity  to  receive, 
make  use  of  and  rise  superior  to  the  wisdom  with 
which  it  is  surrounded,  for  men  truly  great  associate 
with  themselves  the  greatest  minds  that  they  can 
find,  and  when  a  man  of  elevated  position  surrounds 
himself  with  those  of  inferior  capacity,  his  own  ac- 
tion at  once  condemns  him  and  makes  known  his  true 
worth. 

The  intolerable  pressure  which  the  force  of  his 
own  genius  brought  to  bear  upon  Alexander  ac- 
counts at  once  for  his  occasional  excesses.  The  uni- 
form correctness  of  his  judgment  on  great  occasions 
when  he  overruled  the  advice  of  his  most  sagacious 
counsellors  is  overwhelming  proof  of  the  power  of 
his  mind.  Like  all  men  of  vast  intellectual  resource, 
he  too  was  a  dreamer,  and  he  dreamed  true.  The  va- 
rious steps  by  which  he  sought  and  won  the  domin- 
ion of  the  world  were  but  the  preliminaries,  and  laid 
the  foundation  of  an  empire,  which,  had  he  been 
spared,  he  would  doubtless  have  consolidated  and  so- 
lidified; for  even  as  it  was,  the  little  information 
which  remains  to  us  concerning  his  initial  steps 
seems  to  indicate  that  he  was  governed  by  a  pro- 

1:76:] 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

found  knowledge  of  the  true  facts  and  applied  a 
method  which  was  fundamentally  correct,  since  it 
was  based  upon  the  physical  union  of  the  two 
branches  of  the  white  race — Persian  and  Greek. 

We  were  taught  to  think  that  the  many  cities 
founded  throughout  his  dominion  from  the  Indus  to 
the  Nile,  a  dozen  in  Bactria  alone,^  to  many  of 
which  his  own  name  was  given,  were  but  part  of  the 
display  and  ostentation  of  the  conqueror,  and  that  his 
marriage  and  the  marriages^  which  he  encouraged 
between  his  Macedonian  captains  and  the  great 
Persian  families,  and  those  even  of  the  common  sol- 
diers with  these  same  Persians,  were  a  mere  whim  or 
fantasy  and  could  not  bring  about  that  union  which 
he  called  the  marriage  of  the  East  and  the  West. 

Was  there  a  better  way?  Was  any  other  way  pos- 
sible? Of  all  the  critics  has  any  one  of  them  ever 
suggested  an  improvement  on  this  plan?  Is  it  not 
founded  directly  upon  the  natural  law?  It  was  no 
passing  whim.  It  was  the  only  way;  and  as  for  the 
many  Alexandrias,  Finlay  pointed  out  three-quarters 
of  a  century  ago  that  the  introduction  of  the  Greek 
city  and  the  Greek  city  life  into  the  Asiatic  polity, 
even  though  the  sudden  death  of  Alexander  pre- 
vented its  full  fruition,  had  an  enormous  effect  upon 
the  Asiatic  world.  And  where  will  be  found  a  con- 
queror who  succeeds  to  an  absolute  despotism  whose 
first  step  is  the  introduction  of  numberless  central 
points  where  free  institutions  are  implanted  and 
whence    their    influence    may   be    disseminated    all 

1  Justin,  XII,  5. 

2  "He  looked  forward  to  the  offspring  of  these  unions  as  a  potent  instru- 
ment for  the  further  fusing  of  the  races."     Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  II,  p.  415. 

C773 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

over  the  land?  Despotism  and  free  institutions  con- 
tradict each  other  in  direct  terms,  and  no  despot  but 
Alexander  has  ever  dared  to  mingle  them.  And  it 
was  entirely  voluntary  on  his  part,  for  a  share  in  pol- 
itics or  a  voice  in  the  government  of  the  land  had 
never  been  dreamed  of  since  the  foundation  of  the 
world  by  citizens  of  any  Asiatic  State. 

Moreover,  his  attempted  education  of  the  Persian 
youth^  in  Greek  methods  and  Greek  ideas,  and  the 
splendid  beginning  he  made  with  thirty  thousand 
boys,  was  along  the  same  lines  and  nothing  could 
have  been  more  eminently  practical,  for  as  the  twig 
is  bent  so  is  the  tree  inclined. 

Perhaps  the  most  sure  indication  of  the  great  is 
the  personal  sway  they  exercise  over  men.  Alex- 
ander's whole  army  revolts  in  Babylon  in  the  heart 
of  his  newly  conquered  land,  three  months'  journey  or 
more  from  Macedon.  They  are  called  together  and 
their  treason  frankly  and  sternly  made  plain.  Two 
or  three  of  the  leaders  of  the  mutiny  he  singles  out. 
Leaping  down  from  the  platform,  he  bursts  into  the 
throng  and  personally  arrests  them.  He  then  dis- 
charges the  whole  Greek  army,  confident  that  he  can 
rely  upon  his  loyal  Persians.^  Of  this  his  army  is 
also  fully  convinced  and  Is  furthermore  crushed  and 
heart-broken,  and  Alexander  is,  after  some  days, 
persuaded  to  yield  to  their  entreaties  to  reinstate  and 
forgive  them. 

Alexander  was  In  many  respects  the  culmination, 

^  This  Bury  regards  as  the  most  effective  means  of  bringing  the  two 
races  together.     Greece,  Vol.  II,  p.  415. 

2  Among  others,  the  30,000  youth  who  had  been  drilled  as  Macedonians 
for  five  years.     Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  II,  p.  415;   and  see  pp.  420-21. 

[78: 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

the  flower  and  fruit  of  that  startling  development 
which,  founded  in  purity  of  blood  and  based  upon 
tradition  and  education,  elevated  him  so  far  above 
the  common  ranks  of  humanity  that  he  stands  su- 
preme in  melancholy  solitude.  In  his  life  many  men 
and  many  kinds  of  men  had  been  his  companions  and 
been  known  as  his  companions — a  body  of  his 
troops  bore  that  name,  a  number  of  successful  cap- 
tains bore  that  name — and  above  all  he  drew  to  him  a 
small  group  for  all  of  whom  he  cared  and  some  of 
whom  he  loved,  but  the  best  of  them  fell  so  far  below 
him  in  capacity  that  although  in  constant  and  close 
intercourse  he  discussed  with  them  his  hopes  and  his 
plans,  none  of  them  seems  to  have  understood  either 
the  one  or  the  other,  and  immediately  on  his  death, 
when  all  Babylon  was  shrouded  in  fear  and  trem- 
bling and  darkness,  for  no  light  was  lit,  broke  out  the 
petty  contention  among  those  comparatively  ignoble 
minds  which  wrecked  an  empire  and  extirpated  his 
race.  His  wife  Barsine  and  his  son  Heracles  were 
put  to  death  by  Polysperchon.^  His  wife  Roxana 
and  her  son  Alexander  Aegus  were  put  to  death  by 
Cassander;^  every  member  of  his  family  was  mur- 
dered— and  talent  is  hereditary!^ 

And  what  were  these  hopes  and  what  were  these 
plans?  Throw  aside  at  once  the  idea  of  our  dear  old 
friend  Fluellen  and  all  that  great  group  who  look 
upon  Alexander  as  a  mere  sworder.  They  do  him 
justice  so  far  as  generalship  is  concerned,  but  do  not 
touch  upon  his  statecraft.  Compared  to  him,  Aris- 
totle, his  teacher,  was  but  a  child.    Aristotle's  high- 

1  B.  c.  309.  2  B.  c.  311.  3  Mahaflty,  Ptolemies'  Empire,  p.  49 

1:793 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

est  ideal  was  a  small,  very  small  Greek  city,  not  on 
the  sea  but  at  a  short  and  convenient  distance  from 
it,  with  a  separate  port  like  Athens  so  that  commerce 
might  be  carried  on,  and  foreigners  with  their  ships 
pass  in  and  out,  and  neither  they  nor  trade  contam- 
inate the  citizens;  whose  wants  should  be  ministered 
to  by  slaves,  thus  leaving  them  entirely  at  liberty  to 
pursue  higher  things. 

The  master  of  the  world,  rising  far  above  this  in- 
substantial vision,  sought  a  practical  and  at  the  same 
time  a  profound  solution.  The  merest  outline  or 
suggestion  of  his  plan  has  come  down  to  us.  That 
little  is  enough,  however,  to  claim  our  admiration. 
That  it  was  to  some  extent  known  and  understood  at 
the  time  and  remained  common  knowledge  for  four 
centuries  at  least,  we  have  the  testimony  of  Plutarch 
directly  in  point.  It  is  in  his  oration  concerning  the 
Fortune  or  Virtue  of  Alexander  the  Great. 

"The  so  much  admired  common-wealth  of  Zeno, 
first  author  of  the  Stoic-sect,  aims  singly  at  this,  that 
neither  in  cities  nor  in  towns  we  should  live  under 
laws,  distinct  one  from  another,  but  that  we  should 
look  upon  all  men  in  general  to  be  our  fellow  coun- 
try-men and  citizens,  observing  one  manner  of  living 
and  one  kind  of  order,  like  a  flock  feeding  together 
with  equal  right  in  one  common  pasture.  This  Zeno 
wrote,  fancying  to  himself,  as  in  a  dream,  a  certain 
scheme  of  civil  order  and  the  image  of  a  philosoph- 
ical common-w^ealth,  but  Alexander  made  good 
his  words  by  his  deeds;  for  he  did  not,  as  Aristotle 
advised  him,  rule  the  Grecians  like  a  moderate 
prince,  and  insult  the  barbarians  like  an  absolute  ty- 

[So] 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

rant;  nor  did  he  take  particular  care  of  the  first  as 
his  friends  and  domestics,  and  scorn  the  latter  as 
mere  brutes  and  vegetables,  which  would  have  filled 
his  empire  with  fugitive  incendiaries  and  perfidious 
tumults,  but,  believing  himself  sent  from  Heaven  as 
the  common  moderator  and  arbiter  of  all  nations, 
and  subduing  those  by  force  whom  he  could  not  as- 
sociate to  himself  by  fair  offers,  he  laboured  thus, 
that  he  might  bring  all  regions,  far  and  near,  under 
the  same  dominion,  and  then,  as  in  a  festival  goblet, 
mixing  lives,  manners,  customs,  wedlock  all  to- 
gether, he  ordained  that  every  one  should  take  the 
whole  habitable  world  for  his  country,  of  which  his 
camp  and  army  should  be  the  chief  metropolis  and 
garrison,  that  his  friends  and  kindred  should  be  the 
good  and  virtuous,  and  that  the  vicious  only  should 
be  accounted  foreigners."  "We  follow,"  Plutarch 
makes  Alexander  say,  "the  example  of  Hercules, 
we  emulate  Perseus,  and  tread  in  the  footsteps  of 
Bacchus,  our  divine  ancestor  and  founder  of  our 
race." 

Hercules,  among  other  labors  for  mankind, 
cleaned  the  filthy  Augean  stable  and  perhaps  repre- 
sented to  antiquity  an  exalted  Sanitary  Corps:  Per- 
seus slew  the  Gorgon,  one  glance  at  whom  turned 
man  to  stone  and  which  typified  perhaps  the  para- 
lyzing horror  of  Plague,  Pestilence  and  Famine: 
Bacchus  introduced  the  vine  (agriculture)  by  force 
where  he  could  not  persuade,  and  carried  it  in  tri- 
umph to  legendary  regions  unmapped,  unknown, 
vaguely  called  India.  These  were  the  beneficent 
divinities  in  whose  footsteps  Alexander  trod;  these 

[Si] 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

were  the  great  missionaries  the  redeemers  of  the 
world  whose  acts  Alexander  emulated. 

To  weld  together  Greek  and  Persian  was  the  fun- 
damental idea,  for  Alexander  knew  they  were  of  the 
same  race.  White,  blue  veins  {Sangre  azul  of  the 
Spaniard),  fair  hair,  and  blue  eyes  marked  both 
Greek  and  Persian,  and  distinguished  them  clearly 
from  Asiatic  and  Egyptian.  Moreover,  the  Persians 
were  the  dominant  race  and  of  course  the  only  race 
to  be  considered  politically,  or  from  the  point  of 
view  of  marriage,  for  the  subject  peoples  were  sub- 
ject peoples  in  the  fullest  significance  of  the  term 
and  no  free-born  proud  Macedonian  would  mate 
with  them.  The  joint  numbers,  furthermore,  would 
be  so  great  as  to  insure  control  and  make  successful 
revolt  impossible.  To  break  down  the  remnants  of 
antagonism  between  Greek  and  Persian  was  Alex- 
ander's great  campaign,  a  campaign  waged  almost 
single-handed  against  Macedonian  and  Persian 
alike.  To  this  end  Greek  cities  were  scattered  over 
Asia — to  this  end  the  thirty  thousand  Persian  youth 
were  Greek  instructed — to  this  end  were  Persians 
placed  in  high  office  and  Alexander  assumed  the 
tiara  and  the  Persian  dress  in  State  ceremonies — to 
this  end  the  thousands  of  marriages  between  Mace- 
donian men  and  Persian  women  were  dowered  by 
him — ten  thousand  on  a  single  occasion — to  this  end 
he  himself  married  one  daughter  of  the  royal  house 
and  at  the  same  time  gave  her  sister  in  marriage  to 
his  dearest  friend  Hephaestion,  in  order  that  their 
children  might  be  cousins,  so  highly  did  he  think  of 
blood  kinship — to  this  end  he  faced  conspiracy,  mu- 

C82] 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

tiny,  aye,  death  itself — and  conquered.  For  before  he 
died  all  opposition  had  been  quelled — and  although 
the  earthly  tabernacle  of  the  flesh  covered  with 
wounds  could  not  longer  sustain  the  flame  of  the 
spirit,  and  his  brief  life  ended  before  he  could  so- 
lidify the  new  realm  of  fact  and  thought  which  he 
had  created,  still  historians  trace  to  him  the  sudden 
unfolding  of  the  world  and  find  the  foundations  of 
his  enduring  monument  cast  deep  in  the  eternal  sub- 
stance of  his  greatness. 


At  the  time  of  Alexander's  death  Greek  dominion 
stretched  from  the  Delta  of  the  Indus  to  the  north- 
ern boundary  of  Sogdiana,  well  toward  the  heart  of 
Central  Asia,  thence  westward  to  Western  Sicily, 
thence  south  to  Cyrene,  and  covered  all  between — a 
greater  land  area  probably  than  that  of  Imperial 
Rome. 

The  natural  result  of  territorial  expansion  was 
race  expansion.  The  Seleucids  continued  Alexander's 
policy  of  founding  Greek  cities  hither  and  yon  in 
Asia.  Ptolemy  made  Greeks  welcome  in  Alexan- 
dria. As  mercenaries  they  marched  and  died,  or 
sailed  and  died,  for  each  and  every  of  Alexander's 
rival  survivors.  As  merchants  they  pushed  their 
commerce  far  and  wide:  their  great  bank  at  Rhodes 
had  to  be  reckoned  with  by  kings  and  pirates,  both  of 
whom  flourished  at  that  time.  But  all  this  was  at 
the  expense  of  Greece  itself.  True,  Athens  was  still 
the  school-mistress  of  the  world,  slowly  yielding  to 
Alexandria,  but  the  population  of  Greece  proper 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

rapidly  declined.  Rural  Greece  had  for  generations 
been  losing  its  people  to  the  cities  and  now  its  cities 
lost  population  to  the  world,  while  at  the  same  time 
their  laws  restricting  citizenship  were  breaking 
down.  Internationalism  radically  sapped  civic 
pride  and  civic  patriotism  and  gave  nothing  to  re- 
place. The  Greeks,  for  whom  love  of  the  gods  and 
love  of  their  native  town  had  been  indeed  religion, 
became  atheists  and  egotists,  no  union  among  them — 
no  Greek  nation  possible.  Religion  and  patriotism 
died. 

But  intelligence,  which  had  been  slowly  developed 
through  so  many  ages,  did  not  pass  at  once.  The  Per- 
sian parks  or  paradises  (game  preserves)  and  Alex- 
ander's collections  for  Aristotle^  were  doubtless 
hints  to  Ptolemy  and  led  to  the  important  collections 
of  the  University  at  Alexandria,  whose  group  of  In- 
dian white  cattle  is  also  reminiscent  of  Alexander's 
care  in  selecting  the  finest  Indian  cattle  to  improve 
the  Macedonian  herds  (in  regard  to  the  laws  of 
breeding  he  seems  to  have  been  peculiarly  well  in- 
formed) ;  the  astronomical  instruments — the  vast  li- 
brary— the  corps  of  lecturers — the  faculty — all  these 
multifarious  activities  grew  from  Ptolemy's  founda- 
tion planned  at  about  the  time  the  ignorant  Romans 
began  butchering  their  way  on  a  large  scale  to 
power.^ 

Athens  at  about  this  same  time  gives  us  the  Stoics^ 
and  the  Epicureans,  her  last  great  contributions  to 
philosophy.    The  torch  is  then  taken  up  by  Alex- 

1  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist.,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  i6.  ^  (Stoa). 

2  300  B.  c,  Samnite  War. 

1:84: 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

andria  and  Euclid  prepares  for  all  time  snares  and 
pitfalls  for  innocent  and  unborn  youth.  Eratos- 
thenes^ not  only  measures  the  earth  but  also  maps  it 
with  remarkable  correctness.  The  influence  of  the 
moon  on  the  tides  is  discovered  by  an  astronomer  of 
Marseilles.  Another  of  Samos  antedates  Galileo  by 
seventeen  centuries  and  shows  that  earth  and  planets 
revolve  about  the  sun.  Archimedes^  of  Syracuse,  one 
of  millions  slain  by  Roman  soldiers,  discovers  specific 
gravity  and  is  so  proud  of  his  mathematical  re- 
searches that  the  solution  of  one  important  problem 
is  placed  upon  his  tombstone,  and  in  recognizing 
this  Cicero  discovers  his  grave.  Anatomists  explain 
the  brain's  relation  to  the  nerves.  Books  are  care- 
fully edited,  dictionaries  compiled,  and  much  later 
( I20  B.  C.)  grammar  is  written. 

It  is  clear  that  the  great  and  purely  intellectual 
manifestations  during  this  whole  period  from  500 
B.  C.  to  the  year  one  were  not  confined  to  one  spot, 
but,  save  the  philosopher  Zeno^  (a  Semite),  were 
confined  to  one  race — the  Greek.  All  over  the  Hel- 
lenistic world  from  Gaul^  to  Thrace^  remarkable 
evidences  of  mental  power  accumulated,  and  as  these 
manifestations  grew  less  and  less  frequent  the  Greek 
blood  became  less  and  less  pure.  There  may  be  no 
connection  between  the  two  facts,  but  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  the  facts  existed  and  that  they  were  syn- 
chronous. Never  yet  has  it  been  claimed  that  mon- 
grelism  was  the  logical  physical  basis  of  mental 
elevation  and  intellectual  distinction.'^ 

iC.  250  B.C.         2  212  B.C.         3  (Stoic).         *Pytheas.  ^  Aristotle. 

6  Mommsen,  Rome,  Vol.  I,  p.  151.  "Mongrel  people  .  .  .  never  attain 
real  prosperity." 


SECOND 
THE  GREEKS 

The  wide  dispersion  of  the  Greeks,  the  relaxation 
of  all  the  old  rules  looking  toward  the  preserva- 
tion of  race  purity,  the  increasing  refusal  of  the 
best  stock  to  reproduce,  luxury,  vice,  the  lust  of 
wealth  and  power,  all  combined,  would  have  sufficed 
to  break  down  and  destroy  this  wonderful  and  deli- 
cate instrument — Greek  mentality;  but  among  the 
Alban  Hills  a  little  cloud  no  bigger  than  a  man's 
hand  lowered  and  little  by  little  increased  and  spread 
— portentous — until  about  200  B.  C.  it  darkened 
Greece,  later  the  East,  and  then — the  intelligence  of 
the  world. 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

The  Romans  belonged  to  the  same  stock  as  the 
Persians  and  the  Greeks.^  They  were  a  pure  race 
and  kinsmen  of  the  small  tribes  which  peopled  La- 
tium,  all  of  whom  before  500  B.  C.  were  in  a  lower 
state  of  civilization  than  the  Etruscans,  who  were  of 
a  different  race.  At  the  time  of  the  expulsion  of  the 
Tarquins^  the  Romans  seem  to  have  been  even  more 
pastoral  than  agricultural;  they  were  ignorant  and 
semi-barbarians,  without  manufactures  and  without 
commerce.  Their  numbers  were  few  and  the  nobles 
still  recognized  their  tribal  divisions.  From  the  ne- 
cessities of  the  case  all  the  men  were  trained  to  war. 
In  this  they  resembled  the  Spartans,  but  whereas  the 
Spartans  brought  up  their  children  to  lie  and  steal, 
the  Roman  code  was  severe  and  moral.    There  was 

1  Mommsen,  Rome,  Vol.  I,  pp.  13,  15,  47,  127.  *  C.  510  b.  c. 

1:86: 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

little  or  no  education,  unless  perhaps  the  youth  were 
instructed  in  the  twelve  tables  just  as  our  children 
used  to  be  taught  the  ten  commandments.  The  Ro- 
mans had  yet  another  advantage  over  the  Spartans  in 
that  the  family  was  an  almost  sacred  institution  and 
the  gods  of  the  hearth,  the  Lares  and  Penates,  the 
closest  divinities.^ 

Athens  expelled  the  tyrants^  and  instituted  under 
the  name  of  democracy  what  proved,  often,  mob  rule, 
that  is,  the  rule  of  whim  and  passion.  Rome  expelled 
her  kings  and  chose  to  be  governed  by  an  intangible 
something  above  all  and  to  be  obeyed  by  all,  which 
when  later  embodied  in  the  twelve  tables  became  to 
a  great  extent  the  rule  of  written  law.^  In  both  cities 
at  first  the  influence  of  the  best  (Aristos)  largely 
controlled.  It  rapidly  grew  weak  in  Athens,  where 
individualism  gradually  led  to  the  demagogue.  In 
Rome  the  patricians  were  an  organized  body  and  so 
long  as  the  individuals  composing  the  Senate  re- 
tained their  race  vigor  they  conducted  affairs.  Very 
soon  it  was  found  difficult  to  keep  its  number  up  to 
three  hundred,  and  to  the  "patres"  were  joined 
wealthy  plebeians,  "conscripti."^  Thus  the  ranks  of 
the  Senate  constantly  received  fresh  blood  recruited 
from  the  ablest  by  the  rough  test  of  wealth.  About 
445  B.  C.  intermarriage  between  the  nobles  and  ple- 
beians, theretofore  forbidden,  was  legalized.'^  This 
was  a  great  step  forward  because  it  broadened  and 
deepened  the  source  of  supply  and  among  people  of 

iBury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  p.  139.  Mommsen,  Rome,  Vol.  I,  p.  90.  See, 
for  Lares,  p.  185. 

2  C.  510  B.  c.  3  Momrasen,  Rome,  Vol.  I,  pp.  282  et  seq. 

*  Mommsen,  Rome,  Vol.  I,  p.  283.  5  Mommsen,  Rome,  Vol.  I,  p.  318. 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

pure  race  mental  force  is  no  more  confined  to  one 
class  than  is  bodily  strength.^ 

Furthermore,  the  *'conscripti"  could  not  address 
the  Senate ;  they  voted  by  taking  part  in  the  divisions. 
As  one  haughty  noble  expressed  it,  they  voted  with 
their  feet.  In  the  popular  meetings  in  the  forum, 
moreover,  free  speech  was  not  permitted  in  early 
Rome.^  The  meeting  could  accept  or  reject  a  pro- 
posal; debate  was  strictly  limited  by  the  presiding 
officer  and  amendment  was  not  allowed.  The  dema- 
gogue was  not  encouraged. 

A  sternly  practical  workaday  life  for  nobles  and 
people  alike  long  remained  the  Roman  ideal,  and  so 
long  as  this  ideal  held  sway  Rome  prospered.  This 
was  joined  with  insistence  on  conformity — all  must 
be  alike.  To  be  different  in  small  matters  was  a  mis- 
demeanor; in  large  matters  was  a  crime.  A  painter 
or  a  poet,  like  the  play-actor  then  and  in  Elizabeth's 
time,  would  have  been  a  vagabond  had  he  existed. 
For  literature  and  art  the  Roman  in  great  measure 
substituted  the  gladiator  and  in  so  doing  invoked 
upon  himself  and  his  posterity  a  curse. 

The  Greek  never  really  learned  that  a  partial  sur- 
render of  individual  liberty  made  for  greater  freedom 
to  his  community.  The  Roman  surrendered  much 
personal  independence  for  the  common  weal  and  in 
obeying  his  father  learned  to  obey  the  State.^  All 
were  farmers,  the  noble  and  the  plebeian  alike,  and 
all  labored  with  their  hands.  The  poor,  the  prole- 
tariat, seem  to  have  been  a  comparatively  small  class. 

1  Shakespeare,  Lincoln,  Darwin,  Pitt.       ^  Mommsen,  Rome,  Vol.  I,  p.  35. 

2  Mommsen,  Rome,  Vol.  I,  p.  381. 

C88: 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

In  the  sturdy,  self-respecting  large  middle  class 
whose  members  revered  authority  and  regarded  the 
magistrate  as  empowered  to  govern  them  and  not  to 
be  governed  by  them,  lay  the  strength  of  Rome. 

As  the  Romans  gradually  beat  back  or  overcame 
the  neighboring  tribes  in  Latium,  they  absorbed  these 
people  of  the  same  race  into  their  own  commonwealth 
and  pushed  out  farther  and  farther  their  agricultural 
development.  With  the  Etruscans  they  never  seem 
to  have  mingled  closely.  In  a  later  and  wider  cam- 
paign Rome,  curiously  enough,  secured  the  ascend- 
ancy of  the  Latin  tribes  in  Italy  in  the  same  year 
which  saw  Philip  of  Macedon  the  master  of  Greece,^ 
but  in  this  final  success  Rome  refused  to  concede 
equality  and  became  the  overlord.  Then  came  the 
contest  with  the  Samnites,  and  after  a  long  struggle 
Rome  became  the  mistress  of  all  Central  Italy,  and 
dominant  from  Cisalpine  Gaul  to  the  Greek  cities  on 
the  south.2 

One  of  the  most  picturesque  figures  of  antiquity 
is  Pyrrhus,  King  of  Epirus.  Called  in  by  unreliable 
Tarentum  to  stem  the  Roman  tide,  he  proved  a  bril- 
liant general.^  His  plans  brought  him  into  conflict 
with  the  Carthaginians  in  Sicily,  then  leagued  with 
the  Romans;  worthless  Tarentum  thwarted  him  and 
betrayed  herself;  Pyrrhus  withdrew  and  what  was 
left  of  Magna  Graecia  was  swallowed  up.  The 
Greek  cities  almost  uniformly  seemed  to  prefer  for- 
eign domination  to  reciprocal  concessions  and  con- 
cord.   Individualism  gone  mad! 

Up  to  this  time  Roman  expansion  had  been  along 

1  Chaeronea,  338  B.  c.  2  295  b.  c.  ^  280  B.  c. 

[89] 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

agricultural  and  pastoral  lines.  New  lands  had 
been  constantly  opened  to  her  colonists  and  her 
growth  in  free  farm  land  was  very  much  like  that  of 
ours  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century.  Families 
were  large,  population  rapidly  increased,  and  not 
till  268  B.  C.  did  Rome  begin  to  coin  silver,  because 
her  commercial  relations  were  so  limited  that  a  good 
medium  of  exchange  had  not  been  needed.  All  this 
time  the  strong  family  relation  had  been  constantly 
maintained.  Manners  were  simple,  wants  few,  lux- 
ury unknown — but  now  a  change  takes  place.  The 
lust  for  wealth  and  power  begins.  Carthage,  which 
had  joined  hands  to  drive  Pyrrhus  from  Italy,  ham- 
pered Rome's  commercial  ambition,  so  Rome  at- 
tacked Carthage.^ 

Mahan  points  out  the  disadvantage  under  which 
Rome  labored  in  the  first  Punic  war  until  she  estab- 
lished her  naval  supremacy.^  This,  among  other 
things,  compelled  Hamilcar — since  Rome  could 
be  attacked  only  through  Gaul — to  spend  years  in 
Spain,  winning  and  developing  resources,  obtaining 
funds,  materials  and  supplies,  and  building  up  his 
army.  He  did  it  in  the  teeth  of  the  powerful  party 
in  Carthage  who,  in  the  lengths  to  which  they  went 
to  secure  peace  at  any  price,  proved  that  Carthage 
was  already  degenerate;  since  of  this  party  the 
minority  who  led  were  in  truth  selfish  traitors,  and 
the  majority  of  those  who  followed  them  lacked 
sense.  Such  men  make  the  loathsome  obstructionists 
we  call  professional  conscientious  objectors. 

^  First  Punic  war,  264-241  B.  c. 

2  Influence  of  Sea  Power  on  History,  pp.  14  et  seq. 

[903 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

If  Carthage  refused  supplies  Hamilcar  captured 
the  Spanish  silver  mines  and  worked  them.  If  Car- 
thage refused  reinforcements  he  enlisted,  trained  and 
paid  soldiers. 

"His  achievements  compelled  Cato  the  elder,  who 
a  generation  after  Hamilcar's  death  beheld  in  Spain 
the  still  fresh  traces  of  his  working,  to  exclaim,  not- 
withstanding all  his  hatred  of  the  Carthaginians, 
that  no  king  was  worthy  to  be  named  by  the  side 
of  Hamilcar  Barca."^ 

This  warrior  and  statesman  met  death  just  as  the 
plans  his  genius  drove  on  for  nine  years  were  matur- 
ing.^ Hasdrubal,  his  son-in-law,  during  the  next 
eight  years  pressed  on  those  plans.^  Between  them, 
they  built  up  for  Carthage  an  empire  in  Spain  which 
made  up  for  all  her  losses  in  the  first  Punic  war.  His 
remittances  to  venal  Carthage  compelled  the  traitor- 
ous leaders  to  allow  him  to  continue  his  work  and 
bribed  the  corrupt  rabble  to  sustain  his  policy.  Rome, 
though  warned  time  and  again  by  the  betrayers  of 
Carthage,  was  lulled  to  false  security  as  she  con- 
sidered an  invasion  of  Italy  from  Spain  an  impos- 
sibility by  land,  and,  in  the  face  of  her  fleet,  an  impos- 
sibility by  sea. 

In  220  Hasdrubal  was  assassinated,  and  Hannibal, 
the  eldest  son  of  Hamilcar,  in  his  twenty-ninth  year 
became  general-in-chief. 

Each  member  of  this  distinguished  family  realized 
that  the  life  of  Carthage  depended  upon  the  death 
of  Rome.  It  needed  not  the  sanction  of  the  dreadful 
oath  which,  as  a  mere  lad  nine  years  of  age,  Hannibal 

^  Mommsen,  Rome,  Vol.  II,  p.  94.        2  236-228  B.  c.         ^  227-220  B.  c. 

1:9a 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

swore,  to  deepen  in  him  the  family  hatred  of  Rome, 
nor  to  strengthen  the  self-immolating  patriotism 
which  animated  each  of  the  three  members  of  the 
"lion's  brood"  so  long  as  life  endured. 

Carthaginian  traitors  became  more  insistent  in 
their  warnings  to  Rome.  Rome  knew  them  to  be 
traitors,  and  knew  their  hatred  of  Hannibal,  and 
made  undue  allowance;  and  then  again,  without 
doubt,  Hannibal's  clever  Roman  spies  kept  suggest- 
ing the  advisability  of  permitting  Carthage  to  lose 
her  army  in  attempting  the  impossible,  for  who 
would  dream  of  forcing  passage  through  northern 
Spain  and  southern  Gaul,  crossing  great  and  un- 
bridged  rivers,  the  unknown  Pyrenees,  the  trackless 
Alps,  and  all  the  way  pass  through  savage  peoples 
whose  only  art  was  war? 

When  Rome  awoke  Hannibal  was  on  his  way.^ 
Preparations  had  been  made  to  send  a  Roman  army 
into  Africa,  and  Scipio  to  the  Ebro  to  prevent  Han- 
nibal from  crossing  that  river.  Scipio  delayed. 
When  he  reached  Marseilles  on  his  way  to  Spain  he 
found  Hannibal  at  the  Rhone.  He  again  delayed. 
When  he  reached  Avignon  he  found  Hannibal  had 
already  slipped  by  and  successful  pursuit  was  out  of 
the  question. 

Scipio  sent  the  main  body  of  his  troops  to  Spain 
in  obedience  to  the  original  orders,  and  he  himself 
with  a  small  detachment  returned  to  Italy,  so  that 
when  Hannibal  reached  the  valley  of  the  Po  there 
were  no  Roman  legions  ready  to  attack  his  exhausted 
and  depleted  army. 

1  Second  Punic  war,  217-201  B.  C. 

C92] 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

"The  very  devil  of  a  man,"  said  Napoleon,  "he 
sacrificed  half  his  force  to  reach  the  field  of  battle!" 

But  we  are  not  interested  in  details  of  war.  We 
are,  however,  deeply  interested  in  manifestations  of 
supreme  intelligence.  The  Semitic  race  in  different 
branches,  so  long  as  pristine  vigor  was  retained,  has 
again  and  again  proved  to  the  world  its  eminence. 
From  Hammurabi,  the  first  lawmaker,^  to  Mahomet" 
it  has  brought  forth  warriors,  statesmen,  prophets 
and  kings — great  warriors,  great  statesmen,  great 
prophets  and  great  kings — it  has  held  universal  sway 
— it  has  known  the  heights  and  depths  and  tasted  the 
joys  and  woes  of  all  degrees,  from  the  exaltation  of 
absolute  dominion  to  the  miseries  of  slavery.  It  has 
furnished  the  gauge  or  measure  of  human  intelli- 
gence, from  the  abject  superstition  of  the  idolater  to 
the  awful  agony  of  the  attempt  to  "know  thee,  the 
one  true  God."  In  its  mental  processes  it  seems  rad- 
ically different  from  the  white  race.  Like  the 
Nordic,  however,  it  is  moved,  nay,  it  is  swept  along, 
by  an  insensate  lust  for  wealth  and  power.  It  has 
shown  itself  beyond  example  cruel,  and  on  the  other 
hand,  capable  of  self-sacrifice  so  unthinkable  that 
mankind,  wherever  the  story  is  told,  bows  down  and 
adores.  It  has  been  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the 
wilderness,  and  from  its  ranks,  pure,  spotless,  unde- 
filed,  has  come  the  answer  to  that  cry. 

Hannibal,  whose  very  name'^  should  have  told  his 
countrymen  that  he  was  their  deliverer,  was  of 
splendid  lineage.  Illustrious  sires  begat  illustrious 
sons.     It  was  one  of  his  family  name,  two  hundred 

1  2IOO  B.  c.  2  622  A.  D.  2  "Grace  of  God." 

[93: 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

and  fifty  years  before,  who,  at  Himera,  stood  before 
the  great  altar  invoking  his  God,  while  the  battle 
raged  against  the  Greek,^  and  as  victory  poised 
doubtful  and  uncertain,  the  smoke  grew  darker  and 
still  more  black  while  hecatombs  w^ere  cast  upon  the 
roaring  flame,  until,  as  evil  tidings  poured  in,  that  he 
might  compel  his  obdurate  divinity  to  grant  deliver- 
ance and  triumph,  he  flung  himself  upon  the  pyre. 
From  such  wonderful  tradition,  from  such  devoted 
ancestry,  Hannibal  sprang  forth.  His  was  a  mind 
for  which  no  detail  was  too  insignificant,  no  compre- 
hensive scheme  too  vast.  His  was  imagination  which 
seized  the  future  on  the  instant,  yet  was  ever  based 
on  caution  which  took  a  bond  from  fate.  His  judg- 
ment, unafifected  by  success  or  calamity,  moved 
serenely  to  the  best  solution.  He  was  a  negotiator  so 
able  and  so  winning  that  he  seemed  to  create  allies, 
and  was  able  to  remain  for  thirteen  years  with  a  small 
and  patchwork  force,  a  force  which  never  mutinied, 
a  force  as  constant  in  disaster  as  it  was  in  victory, 
amidst  hundreds  of  thousands  of  foes,  and  would 
have  saved  Carthage  had  Carthage  been  worth  sav- 
ing. But  those  degenerates  were  not  worth  salvation. 
They  virtually  betrayed  Hannibal  and  at  the  same 
time  betrayed  themselves. 

From  Rome  he  received  the  greatest  tribute  she 
ever  paid  to  mortal  man,  because  he  inspired  such 
terror  that  while  he  lived  she  could  not  sleep.  She 
feared  him,  even  when  she  had  made  him  a  homeless 
fugitive,  more  than  she  feared  the  armies  and 
navies  of  the  world,  and  when  Flamininus  persuaded 

1  480  B.  C.    Bury,  Greece,  Vol.  I,  p.  328. 

1:94: 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

the  paltry  prince  on  the  confines  of  civilization  with 
whom  Hannibal  had  been  finally  driven  to  seek  asy- 
lum and  whom  he  had  loyally  and  victoriously 
served,  to  murder  him,  and  Hannibal,  seeing  his 
house  surrounded  by  his  butchers,  took  poison,^  Fla- 
mininus  felt  he  had  earned  his  proudest  title  to  fame. 
Fame  and  infamy,  so  far  as  Flamininus  is  concerned, 
rub  shoulders. 

But  Hannibal,  the  defeated,  the  homeless  wan- 
derer, the  compulsory  suicide,  conquered  Rome.  His 
campaigns  in  Italy  sealed  her  fate.  Three  hundred 
thousand  Italians  fell  in  those  conflicts.  The  Senate, 
reduced  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  members, 
was  with  difficulty  reconstituted.  The  proper  ma- 
terial was  lacking.  One  hundred  and  seventy-seven 
new  senators  had  to  be  created.  Four  hundred  towns, 
representing  generations  of  slowly  accumulated  cap- 
ital, were  destroyed.  Large  tracts,  hitherto  intensely 
cultivated,  became  desolations.  The  law-abiding 
Roman  farmer  was  a  thing  of  the  past.  If  he  sur- 
vived, years  of  camp  life  made  him  a  desperado,  and 
the  destruction  of  home  and  farm  made  him,  past 
redemption,  a  vagabond,  a  wanderer  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  Bands  of  robbers  to  whom  the  slaves 
joined  themselves  ravaged  far  and  wide.  Seven 
thousand  were  executed  in  one  province  (Apulia) 
in  a  single  year.  The  little  farms  were  replaced  by 
great  reaches  of  pasture  where  foreign  slaves,  as  wild 
as  the  cattle,  tended  the  herds.  The  sturdy,  self-re- 
specting middle  class,  the  glory  and  stay  of  Rome, 
was  no  more.    A  wise,  far-sighted  government  might 

^183  B.C.     Sixty-seven  years  old. 

C95: 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

even  now  have  drawn  together  and  unified  all  the 
Latins,  have  re-established  the  farmer,  and  with  him 
the  race.  But  the  war  had  shown  that  corn  could  be 
imported  from  Greece  and  Egypt,  and  the  genius  in 
Rome  who  should  propose  large-minded  measures  to 
the  mental  mediocrity  of  the  Senate  or  the  mental 
imbecility  of  the  mob  could  count  absolutely  upon 
ignominious  failure  and  violent  death. 

No  integral  part  of  a  pure-blooded  community 
can  be  degraded  or  blotted  out  without  untold  injury, 
because  with  well-bred  stock  intelligence  is  not  lim- 
ited to  any  one  class,  but  is  indigenous  in  the  whole 
race,  and  the  wider  the  basis,  the  more  numerous  the 
population,  the  greater  is  the  opportunity  for  the 
manifestation  of  mental  power,  and  the  more  gen- 
eral the  distribution  of  mental  power  the  greater  in 
turn  is  the  opportunity  for  the  manifestation  of  that 
rare  quality  we  call  genius. 

The  whole  advancement  of  the  world  has  de- 
pended upon  the  driving  power  of  a  comparatively 
few  great  minds.  Even  at  the  best  periods,  and  there 
are  only  two  such  periods  in  recorded  history  of 
which  we  have  definite  information,  the  mass  of  the 
population  has  been  inert  or  opposed  to  improvement. 

At  the  close  of  the  Hannibalic  war  no  Roman  fam- 
ily but  mourned  its  dead.  Ravaged  Latium  contrib- 
uted its  quota  to  the  four  hundred  townships  which 
were  destroyed,  and  its  quota  to  their  eight  hundred 
thousand  homeless  or  enslaved  wanderers.^ 

Badly  broken  as  were  senate,  nobles,  knights  and 

1  The  total  population  of  Italy,  south  of  the  valley  oi  the  Po,  may  be 
estimated  (200  b.  c.)  at  from  3,000,000  to  3,500,000,  of  which  300,000  were 
dead  and  800,000  vagabonds,  making  one-third  of  all  victims  of  the  war. 

[:q6i 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

rich  plebeians,  they  were  yet  a  solidarity.  So  far  as 
possible  they  seized  upon  the  vacant  lands  and  sub- 
stituted slaves  for  free  farmers,  and  their  rule  was  to 
select  slaves  from  as  many  different  nationalities  as 
possible,  since,  strangers  to  each  other,  and  speaking 
different  languages,  they  would  be  deterred  from 
uniting  against  their  owners. 

The  change  from  a  state  where  noble,  commoner, 
and  peasant  shared  in  governing  to  a  state  of  but  two 
classes,  rich  and  poor,  began  at  this  time  and  went 
forward  with  constantly  accelerated  rapidity.  The 
Senate  tended  more  and  more  to  become  a  mere  oli- 
garchy bitterly  hostile  to  new  men, — new  blood  ;^ 
and  its  stupid  and  selfish  policy  of  neglecting  to  re- 
constitute its  middle  class  ^  deprived  Rome  of  a  great 
part  of  the  sturdy  basis  of  its  race  life,  and  in  the 
slaughter  during  the  war  of  the  strongest  and  most 
vigorous,  gravely  impaired  her  power  of  high-bred 
reproduction. 

In  the  beginning  of  her  history  Rome  fought  to 
save  herself,  then  fought  to  dominate  as  well  as  to 
secure  her  boundaries,  and  now  finally,  when  her  vic- 
tory over  Carthage  gave  her,  in  addition  to  all  Italy, 
Sicily,  Sardinia  and  the  best  part  of  Spain,  and  her 
government  gradually  turned  into  an  oligarchy,  that 
oligarchy  in  its  selfish,  heavy-witted  way  slowly 
evolved  the  idea  of  living  in  luxury  at  the  expense  of 
the  world. 

With  Rome  war  had  been  a  profession.  She  now 
made  it  a  trade,  and  as  a  trade  it  became  more  and 

1  Mommsen,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  75. 

2  "Where  slavery  exists  there  is  no  middle  class."  Rationalism  in  Eu- 
rope, Lecky,  Vol.  II,  p.  251. 

1:97] 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

more  atrocious.  Her  soldiers  no  longer  fought  for 
the  republic,  but  for  loot.  In  Spain,  Marcus  Cato^ 
sold  the  whole  mass  of  certain  revolted  communities 
into  slavery.  The  war  with  the  Boii  became  a  slave 
hunt  until  the  commanding  general  reported  that  of 
that  powerful  and  numerous  tribe  only  old  men  and 
children  were  left.  In  Sardinia^  the  victor  boasted 
he  had  slain  or  captured  eighty  thousand,  and  kept 
sending  such  droves  of  slaves  to  the  Roman  market 
that  "cheap  as  a  Sardinian"  became  a  proverb. 

In  the  war  against  Macedon,  after  humiliating 
experiences  with  incapable  generals,  Rome  at  last 
sent  Lucius  ^milianus  Paulus,  the  son  of  the  consul 
who  fell  at  Cannae,  a  man  of  good  stock,  of  the  old 
nobility,  but  poor.  On  his  merits  alone  the  people 
elected  him  a  second  time  consul.^  Instead  of  flat- 
tering them,  he  told  them  that  as  they  had  made  him 
general  he  supposed  they  intended  him  to  conduct 
the  war,  and  he  would  thank  them  to  let  him  alone 
and  to  abstain  from  the  usual  advice  and  interference, 
and  he  also  told  them  to  be  silent  and  obey.  This 
speech  has  given  an  impression  that  Romans  were  still 
of  stern  and  upright  character.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he 
was  "one  of  the  only  men  in  Rome  to  whom  money 
could  not  be  offered,"  and  his  election  was  all  the 
more  extraordinary  as  his  poverty  had  hindered  his 
political  career,  since  the  slogan  was,  No  bribes,  no 
votes.  Venality!  Corruption!  The  whole  moral 
fibre  had  given  way. 

The  Senate  gave  Paulus  secret  instructions  in  obe- 
dience to  which  in  one  day  he  "gave  up  seventy  town- 

1  195  B.C.  2  177  B.C.  2j63b.c. 

:98] 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

ships  of  Epirus  to  plunder  and  sold  the  inhabitants 
— one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand — into  slavery."^ 
The  whole  Senate  was  involved  in  this  infamy. 

Their  faithful  ally,  Eumenes,  the  Senate  deliber- 
ately humiliated  and  robbed,  nor  did  it  dare  to  face 
him  when  he  personally  attempted  to  present  his 
case.  On  the  contrary,  it  hastily  passed  a  law  that, 
in  future,  no  kings  should  be  allowed  to  come  to 
Rome,  hiding  its  trepidation  under  republican 
demagogism.  Rhodes,  which  from  Alexander's  time 
had  been  the  great  Greek  bank,  the  leading  commer- 
cial Greek  city,  rivalling  Rome  herself,  was  with 
baseness  and  cruelty  deliberately  ruined  and  her 
competition  killed. 

The  battle  of  Pydna^  against  the  Macedonians,  the 
last  surviving  vigorous  Greek  stock,  was  followed  by 
the  execution  of  all  Greeks  who  served  in  the  Mace- 
donian army,  and  thousands  supposed  to  be  impli- 
cated with  or  favorable  to  the  Macedonians  were 
sentenced  to  transportation  and  carried  ofif  to  Italy. 
Naturally  informers  plied  a  thriving  trade.  The  son 
of  Perseus,  the  defeated  King  of  Macedon,  came  to 
earn  his  living  in  an  Italian  town  (Alba  on  the  Fu- 
cine  Lake)  as  a  clerk,  a  position  usually  filled  by  a 
slave  or  f reedman.  Macedon  was  disarmed  and  left 
open  to  the  incursions  of  the  barbarians. 

In  turning  war  into  slave  hunting,  Rome's  military 
spirit  and  discipline  so  declined  that  scandalous  in- 
stances of  cowardice  occurred.^  Rumor  of  a  slight 
skirmish  was  magnified  on  one  occasion  and  both  the 
Roman  army  and  navy  took  to  flight.     The  gilded 

iMommsen,  Vol.  II,  p.  329.        2  jgg  b.  c.         3  jyiommsen,  Vol.  II,  p.  367. 

1:993 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

youth,  the  sons  of  nobles,  turned  recreant,  and  public 
laws  were  passed  against  them  as  such. 

At  this  time,  about  150  B.  C,  Mommsen,  who  wrote 
before  Darwin's  discoveries  were  known,  and  before 
Galton  proved  talent  to  be  hereditary,  with  the  power 
of  divination  granted  to  mental  acumen  states:^ 
"No  doubt  a  certain  hereditary  character  was  inher- 
ent [in  the  Senate^]  ...  in  so  far  as  statesmanly 
wisdom  and  statesmanly  experience  are  bequeathed 
from  the  able  father  to  the  able  son,  and  the  inspir- 
ing spirit  of  an  illustrious  ancestry  fans  every  noble 
spark  within  the  human  breast  into  flame.  .  .  .  But, 
while  in  the  earlier  period  the  hereditary  charac- 
ter of  the  dignity  had  been  to  a  certain  extent  borne 
out  by  the  inheritance  of  intrinsic  worth,  and  the 
senatorial  aristocracy  had  guided  the  state  ...  by 
virtue  of  the  right  of  the  superior,  as  contrasted 
with  the  mere  ordinary  man,  it  sank  in  this  epoch 
(and  with  specially  great  rapidity  after  the  end  of 
the  Hannibalic  war)  from  its  original  high  position 
into  an  order  of  lords  filling  up  its  ranks  by  heredi- 
tary succession,  but  exercising  collegiate  misrule." 

As  the  world  is  constituted,  all  society  rests  upon 
the  family,  which  in  turn  rests  upon  the  marriage 
tie.  Degrade  the  family  and  you  degrade  mankind 
— elevate  the  family  and  you  elevate  mankind. 
Rome  degraded  the  family. 

Severely  as  the  demoralization  caused  by  forty 
years  of  war  had  impaired,  by  the  destruction  of  so 
many  of  the  strongest  and  best,  the  capacity  for  its 
vigorous  reproduction  by  the  Roman  race,  another 

1  Mommsen,  Vol.  II,  p.  345. 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

result  still  more  terrible  now  appears.  The  family 
tie,  that  citadel  of  Roman  power,  became  relaxed. 
Cato  had  voiced  the  accepted  and  the  right  idea  that 
in  marriage  one  should  "look  to  good  descent." 
Marriage  now  became  for  both  parties  a  mere  busi- 
ness speculation.  Women  threw  off  the  restraint  of 
conservatism  and  from  modest  matrons  became  more 
and  more  brazen  hussies.  They  too  grasped  at  money 
and  power.  Cato  accused  them  of  endeavoring  "to 
rule  the  rulers  of  the  world. "^    Divorces  multiplied. 

Men  as  early  as  234  B.  C.  had  been  gravely  re- 
proached for  celibacy,  for  unwillingness  to  marry. 
"The  evil  of  grisettes  spread  with  the  rapidity  and 
virulent  effect  of  the  plague."  The  boy  favorite  was 
more  and  more  eagerly  purchased  in  the  teeth  of  the 
heavy  tax  imposed  by  the  censor  Cato  on  this  most 
abominable  species  of  slaves.^  Indeed,  the  tax  soon 
failed  to  be  imposed  at  all,  so  strong  and  vile  was 
opposing  public  opinion.  "Horrible  crimes  were 
perpetrated  in  the  bosom  of  the  families  of  high 
rank.  For  instance,  the  consul  Gains  Calpurnius 
Piso  was  poisoned  by  his  wife  and  his  stepson  in 
order  to  occasion  a  supplementary  election  to  the 
consulship,  and  so  to  procure  the  supreme  magistracy 
for  the  latter — a  plot  which  was  successful."^ 

Asiatic  and  Greek  luxury  with  its  infamies  was 
transferred  to  Rome.  Wine  was  no  longer  mixed 
with  water  in  the  drinking  bouts  which  constantly 
occurred,  and  these  and  dicing  reached  a  point  re- 
quiring legislative  interference.     Refusal  to  work 

1  Mommsen,  Vol.  II,  p.  433.  ^  180  B.C.    Mommsen,  Vol.  II,  p.  432. 

2  184  B.  c. 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

and  the  constant  street  loafer  caused  Cato  to  propose 
paving  the  market  with  pointed  stones.  Increase  of 
gladiatorial  shows  whetted  the  appetite  for  cruelty 
of  the  whole  people.  "That  under  such  a  state  of 
things  plans  for  setting  fire  on  all  sides  to  the  capital 
came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  authorities  need  excite 
no  surprise."^  Nero,  if  he  caused  the  great  fire,  was 
a  mere  plagiarist.  The  idea  was  old.  He  had  been 
anticipated  by  two  centuries. 

The  year  151  B.C.  saw  Lucius  Lucullus  consul. 
On  his  arrival  in  Spain  as  commander-in-chief  he 
found  to  his  disgust  and  rage  that  Marcellus  had 
already  concluded  peace.  His  hope  of  plunder  and 
glory  was  dashed.  The  large  tribe  or  nation  next 
beyond  the  people  with  whom  Marcellus  had  been 
at  war  were  peacefully  living  on  the  best  of  terms 
with  Rome.  These  were  his  selected  victims.  They 
asked  what  wrong  they  had  done.  Lucullus 
answered  by  suddenly  attacking  Cauca.  The  citi- 
zens paid  him  a  large  sum  to  spare  them.  Lucullus 
took  their  money  and  then  massacred  twenty  thou- 
sand and  enslaved  the  rest.  It  makes  one's  blood 
boil!  He  then  advanced,  pillaging  and  murdering, 
but  suddenly  found  himself  without  supplies  in  the 
midst  of  a  resolute  and  inflamed  people.  With  diffi- 
culty he  escaped.  Meantime,  in  the  South,  Galba 
had  been  defeated  by  the  Lusitanians.^  The  next 
year  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  what  can  now  be 
called  a  characteristic  Roman  triumph,  for  with 
some  of  the  victorious  tribes  he  concluded  a  treaty 


1  Mommsen,  Vol.  II,  p.  438. 

2  150  B.C. 


C1O23 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

of  peace,  and  then,  having  induced,  by  a  promise  of 
settlement  on  better  land,  seven  thousand  of  them  to 
come  in,  he  disarmed  and  massacred  or  enslaved 
them  all. 

In  Africa  Carthage,  reconstituted  and  reinvigor- 
ated  before  his  flight  by  the  great  Hannibal,  was 
rapidly  regaining  her  wealth  and  commanding  com- 
mercial position,  and  this,  too,  in  despite  of  Rome's 
best  effort  at  perfidy  and  oppression.  In  Greece  and 
Asia,  Rome  had  already  established  her  power  for 
crime,  more  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  Eastern  mon- 
grelism  had  proceeded  further,  and  that  the  conse- 
quent disunion  and  weakness  was  greater  than  that 
of  Rome,  than  because  of  any  courage  or  capacity 
left  in  Rome. 

The  outbreak  of  the  third  Macedonian  war  and 
the  third  Punic  war^  stopped  Rome's  aggressive 
campaign  in  Spain,  but  not  her  campaign  of  guile. 
The  Spanish  rose  under  Viriathus,  one  of  the  few  of 
the  seven  thousand  who  had  escaped  Galba.  It  is  not 
unpleasant  to  read  that  Galba  lost  half  his  army  and 
was  himself  captured  and  slain. ^  Five  thousand 
men  sent  to  reinforce  him  were  destroyed.  Gaius 
Plautius  Praetor^  was  so  utterly  defeated  that  he 
took  to  winter  quarters  in  midsummer,  and  later 
Rome  exiled  him  for  disgracing  her.  She  had  no 
sense  of  humor!  The  army  of  Unimanus  was  de- 
stroyed and  that  of  Negidius  vanquished. 

^milianus,  on  assuming  command,  found  the  sol- 
diers so  demoralized^  that  after  a  few  defeats  he  had 
them  build  a  wall  around  themselves  lest  the  Span- 

1  149  B.  C.  2j^7B.  C.  3  1^6  B.C.  4  14s  B.C. 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

iards  should  do  them  bodily  harm,  and  kept  them 
within  it  for  a  year;  and  his  cowardly  successor  was 
so  continually  defeated^  that  he  also  was  compelled 
in  midsummer  to  shut  himself  up  in  Corduba.  In 
turn,  his,  the  coward's,  successor  Servilianus  with 
large  reinforcements  was  compelled  to  retreat.  The 
next  year  after  some  success  and  the  usual  savage 
cruelty,  massacres,  cutting  off  of  hands  and  so  forth, 
he  was  utterly  defeated  and  his  army  was  completely 
at  the  Spaniards'  mercy.^  Instead  of  butchering  and 
enslaving  them,  the  civilized  Viriathus  made  peace 
with  the  barbarous  Roman.  It  was  a  foolish  thing  to 
do,  for  the  Senate  as  a  matter  of  course  authorized 
his  successor  Caepio  to  plot  secretly  against  Viria- 
thus and  sanctioned  his  breach  of  faith  in  attacking 
him.^  Viriathus  resisted  and  the  Senate  and  Caepio 
bribed  assassins  to  murder  him. 

In  the  case  of  Numantia,  the  consul  Quintus  Pom- 
peius  was  compelled  to  conclude  peace.^  Hostages 
were  given,  the  first  payments  made  and  received, 
and  when  the  last  payment  was  tendered,  the  consul 
disowned  his  word.  The  matter  was  referred  to  the 
Senate,  who  sanctioned  the  consul's  shameless  act 
and  ordered  the  war  to  continue.  At  the  moment  it 
availed  them  little,  for  so  cowardly  had  the  Romans 
become  that,  on  the  false  rumor  that  aid  was  coming 
to  Numantia,  the  whole  Roman  army  ran  away. 
The  Numantians  caught  up  with  them,  surrounded 
them  and  again  compelled  them  to  make  peace  in- 
stead of  exterminating  them,  and  the  Senate  again 
reneged  the  peace. 

1  143  B.  C.  2  i^j  B.  c.  2  140  B.  C.  *  139  B.C. 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

Falsehood,  cruelty  and  cowardice  are  conclusive 
evidence  of  degeneracy.  The  Roman  story,  on  which 
so  much  moralizing  has  been  based,  is,  in  point  of 
fact,  a  revolting  tale  of  infamy. 

In  the  East  "the  government  of  Rome  deprived 
the  nations  at  once  of  the  blessings  of  freedom  and  of 
the  blessings  of  order."^  In  Africa  the  tale  of  the 
destruction  of  Carthage  is  a  long  horror,  and  one 
looks  forward  eagerly  to  Marius  and  Sulla,  Octavius 
and  Antony,  and  the  retribution  of  the  carnage 
which  they  wrought  among  the  Senators  and  the 
Romans.  Not  a  tenth  part  of  the  population  of  Car- 
thage survived  famine,  pestilence  and  the  sword. 
Thirty  thousand  men  and  twenty-five  thousand 
women  were  all  practically  sold  as  slaves.^  At  the 
time  of  the  capture  of  the  citadel  a  great  part  of  the 
city  was  still  standing.  The  Senate  ordered  the  city 
levelled,  together  with  all  the  townships  loyal  to 
it.  The  preliminary  conflagration  raged  for  seven- 
teen days,  and  when  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century 
the  city  wall  was  excavated,  the  layer  of  ashes  cover- 
ing it  was  four  or  five  feet  deep.  Over  the  site  the 
Senate  ordered  the  plow  passed,  and  having  made 
a  desolation  called  it  peace. 

The  Roman  boorish  ignorance  of  books  is  illus- 
trated by  an  incident  at  this  time.  The  republican 
Senate,  during  its  whole  existence,  authorized  the 
publication  of  only  one  book.  This  was  a  book 
by  Mago,  a  Carthaginian  by  the  way,  on  agricul- 
ture.^ Now  the  libraries  of  Carthage  which  had 
been  salvaged  from  the  conflagration,  came  into  the 

1  Mommsen,  III,  p.  22.  -  146  b.  c.  ■"'  Mommsen,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  87. 

n  105:1 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

Senate's  possession.  These  the  Senate  gave  to  their 
African  allies  in  lieu  of  territory. 

In  Greece  the  situation  had  become  pitiable;  in 
want  and  misery,  the  diminution  of  the  population 
was  emphasized  by  refusal  to  reproduce;  the  people 
beggared  not  only  in  character,  honor,  but  also  in 
purse — the  shadow  of  her  former  self,  Greece  wasted 
away.  Scarce  a  remnant  of  the  old  blood  was  left. 
Her  history  continues,  but  it  is  no  longer  Greek  his- 
tory. There  was  but  one  thriving  town  left  in  all 
Greece.  This,  her  only  hope,  "The  Eye  of  Hellas," 
Corinth,  met  the  fate  of  Carthage,  and  by  the  delib- 
erate act  of  the  Senate  itself.  Notwithstanding 
reckless  destruction,  it  yielded  to  the  savage  soldiery 
a  wealth  of  beauty  beyond  the  appreciation  of  their 
sodden  minds.  Even  the  tombs  were  violated,  and  so 
multitudinous  were  the  objects  placed  there,  that, 
great  as  the  pillage  had  been,  fresh  discoveries  of 
wonderful  craftsmanship  have  been  made  in  our  own 
day.  Commercial  rivalry  with  Rome  ceased.  "From 
Rome  national  and  manly  honor  had  fled." 

So  worthless  was  her  government  that  it  permitted 
a  rival  power  to  grow  up  unchecked.  The  navy  of 
Rome  had  been  allowed  to  rot,  the  subject  provinces 
were  disarmed  and  unable  to  protect  themselves,  and 
pirates  growing  in  number  and  power  commanded 
the  seas.  The  great  trade  in  the  Eastern  waters  was 
the  slave  trade.  The  Roman  mart  at  Delos  was  its 
centre.  Ten  thousand  slaves  are  said  to  have  been 
landed  in  one  morning  at  the  island  of  Delos  and  all 
sold  before  night.  These  slaves  were  procured  by 
raids,  just  as  our  negro  slaves  were  procured   in 

Do6] 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

Africa,  and  Roman  revenue  farmers  vied  v^ith  the 
pirates  in  securing  victims.  The  King  of  Bithynia^ 
was  called  upon  to  furnish  a  contingent.  He  replied 
that  he  was  unable  to  do  so,  because  all  the  people 
capable  of  labor  had  been  dragged  from  his  king- 
dom by  revenue  farmers. 

In  the  old  days  Minos,  King  of  Crete,  was  said  to 
have  rooted  out  piracy.  Crete  now  became  the 
centre  of  piratical  operations,  and  Rhodes  expended 
her  last  resources  in  her  attempts  to  put  down  Cretan 
pirates.  Crete  itself  is  a  singular  exhibition  of  the 
awful  results  of  mongrelism.  In  the  mixture  of 
races  on  that  island  the  Greek  had  become  so  con- 
taminated that  only  his  worst  qualities  were  left. 
Constant  internecine  brawls  had  desolated  the  land. 
The  Island  of  a  Hundred  Cities  was  marked  with 
ruined  sites.  Robbery  with  violence  had  risen  to 
brigandage,  and  brigandage  had  been  sublimated 
into  universal  armed  anarchy.  The  only  point  of 
union  left  was  that  cohesion  in  piracy  which  made 
Crete  a  terror  to  the  East.  Slave  power  was  then 
what  steam  power  is  now,  and  the  maw  of  the  Roman 
capitalist  for  slaves  could  not  be  glutted. 

At  the  expense  of  the  small  farmers  who  were  left 
the  rich  man  increased  his  holdings  and  increased  his 
slaves.  A  common  method  was,  while  the  farmer 
was  away  from  home  at  work,  to  turn  his  wife  and 
children  out  into  the  fields,  and  when  he  returned 
he  found  a  rich  adversary  in  possession  ready  to  in- 
voke the  nine  points  of  the  law.  The  free  laborer 
was  often  employed  in  unhealthy  tasks,  or  unhealthy 

1  lOO  B.  C. 

nio73 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

localities,  as  his  death  would  not  impair  the  chattel 
inventory  of  his  employer,  for  slaves  were  of  course 
valued  as  cattle. 

The  treatment  which  these  poor  people,  ravaged 
from  their  homes  and  carried  to  a  foreign  land,  re- 
ceived beggars  description.  Our  own  negro  slavery 
was  in  comparison  a  merciful  dispensation.  The 
men,  gentle  and  simple  alike,  branded  in  the  cheek, 
and  often  working  in  the  fields  in  fetters,  were  fre- 
quently confined  for  the  night  in  underground  pris- 
ons. The  fate  of  the  women  was  often  even  worse! 
Later,  Rome  bred  slaves,  but  now  it  was  less  expen- 
sive to  fill  up  the  broken  ranks  by  purchase.  The 
fate  of  the  slave  was  more  dreadful  in  Sicily  than  in 
Italy,  and  there  it  was  that  the  first  slave  revolt  took 
place.  This  explains  clearly  why  it  was  that  the  rem- 
nant of  the  middle  class  in  Italy  vanished.  Just  as 
in  our  own  South  before  the  war  there  were  but  two 
ranks  in  society,  the  planter  and  the  poor  white,  so 
in  Rome  the  poor  white  formed  the  proletariat. 

"Beasts  had  their  lairs,  but  nothing  was  left  to  the 
Roman  burgesses  save  the  air  and  sunshine.  The 
masters  of  the  world  had  no  longer  a  clod  that  they 
could  call  their  own." 

Already  Scipio  ^milianus  had  recognized  the  in- 
capacity of  the  Roman  government.  In  laying  down 
their  office  the  censors  had  been  wont  to  ask  the  gods 
to  grant  greater  power  and  glory  to  the  state.  The 
censor  Scipio  only  entreated  them  to  preserve  the 
state.  Tiberius  Gracchus  also  appreciated  this  situ- 
ation and  endeavored  to  restore  the  Roman  farmer 
to  the  commonwealth.     It  of  course  meant  revolu- 

CioS;] 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

tion,  for  it  meant  a  change  in  the  governmental  power 
of  the  oligarchy,  and  he  and  three  hundred  of  his 
followers  were  bludgeoned  to  death  by  the  senators 
personally  and  their  aristocratic  friends.  If  ever  at- 
tempt at  civic  revolution  was  justified,  this  one  was, 
for  the  rule  of  the  Senate  was  so  infamous  that  any 
change  would  probably  have  been  a  benefit. 

And  now  the  treatment  of  the  allied  Latin  towns 
which  had  been  so  staunch  to  Rome  in  her  periods  of 
fearful  distress  becomes  so  bad  that  a  serious  insur- 
rection breaks  out.  Fregellae,  the  second  city  of 
Italy,  declared  war  on  Rome,  but  as  usual  was  be- 
trayed, and  the  harsh  treatment  it  received  crushed 
the  insurrection  before  it  was  fairly  organized.  The 
matter  is  alluded  to  merely  to  indicate  that  the  mis- 
government,  cruelty  and  injustice  of  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment knew  no  bounds. 

Gaius  Gracchus,^  who  seems  to  have  been  perhaps 
the  ablest  man  up  to  this  time  Rome  produced,  with 
a  vision  more  clear  than  that  of  his  older  brother 
Tiberius,  took  up  the  task  left  unfinished  at  his 
brother's  death.  He  seems  to  have  thoroughly  under- 
stood that  there  was  no  governing  ability  left  in  any 
class  in  Rome.  His  mother  Cornelia,  still  cherishing 
and  worshipping  the  dead  and  gone  ideal  Roman 
state,  adjured  him  to  desist,  but  his  resolution  was 
unalterable,  for  he  understood  Rome's  degeneracy. 
He  was  probably  the  greatest  orator  Rome  ever  had, 
and  trusted  to  persuasion  in  part,  but  mostly  to  the 
purchase  of  the  voters  and  not  to  arms  to  obtain  his 
end.     For  this  purpose  he  secured  constant  free  dis- 

1  151-121    B.  C. 

n  109:1 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

tribution  of  food  to  the  proletariat.  He  separated,  so 
far  as  possible,  the  rich  mercantile  class  from  the 
nobles  and  Senate  by  giving  them  unhampered  the 
plunder  of  Asia.  He  knew  that  only  one  form  of 
government  was  left  for  Rome,  and  that  was  a  des- 
potism. But  the  Senate  was  a  united  body.  His  own 
forces  were  disorganized  and  could  not  resist  the 
armed  attack  of  the  Senate,  and  the  bounty  offered 
for  his  head  was  paid.  At  the  same  time,  to  make 
their  bargain  good,  the  Senators  are  reported  to  have 
strangled  in  addition  three  thousand  of  his  followers 
in  prison.  For  the  second  time  the  Senate  resorted  to 
violence.  They  sowed  the  wind!  Gaius  Gracchus 
dead,  once  more  the  Senate  "sat  on  the  vacated 
throne  with  an  evil  conscience  and  divided  hopes,  in- 
dignant at  the  institutions  of  the  State  which  it  ruled 
and  yet  incapable  of  systematically  assailing  them; 
vacillating  in  all  its  conduct  save  where  its  own  ma- 
terial advantage  called  for  a  decision,  a  picture  of 
faithlessness,  of  inconstancy,  of  woeful  impotence,  of 
the  meanest  selfishness — an  unsurpassed  ideal  of  mis- 
rule."^ Never  had  the  Roman  aristocracy  been  so 
utterly  deficient  in  men  of  capacity,  and  the  utter  de- 
pravity of  Roman  nobles  is  made  manifest  by  the  fear- 
ful crimes  which  continued  to  come  to  light  in  rapid 
succession.  In  the  hands  of  such  creatures  as  this  lay 
the  so-called  government  of  the  world. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  servile  insurrection 
headed  by  the  Roman  knight  Titus  Vetius  was  sup- 
pressed,^ not  by  the  legion  which  marched  against  it, 
but  by  insidious  treachery.    The  plunder  of  the  prov- 

1  Mommsen,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  142.  -  104  B.  c. 

[no] 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

inces  went  on  unchecked,  for  the  jury  to  try  this  of- 
fense was  virtually  composed  of  the  plunderers 
themselves.  In  Sicily,  the  free  provincials  were  by 
the  rich  reduced  to  slavery.  The  court  inquired  into 
the  matter,  and  eight  hundred  processes  were  de- 
cided against  the  slave-owners.  Such  justice  shocked 
the  rich  plunderers,  who  put  so  much  pressure  on  the 
court  that  the  rest  were  ordered  to  return  instantly  to 
those  who  called  themselves  their  masters.  In  the 
rising  which  ensued  Morgantia  was  besieged  by  the 
slaves  and  would  have  fallen  but  for  its  defense  by 
the  slaves  in  the  town  whose  masters  promised  them 
legal  freedom  for  their  aid.  The  town  saved  by  the 
valor  of  these  slaves,  the  Roman  governor  declared 
the  promises  of  liberty  void! 

The  war  with  Jugurtha  is  one  long  story  of  Roman 
venality,  bribery  and  corruption — the  whole  Senate 
and  its  generals  in  the  field  bought — scarcely  an  hon- 
est man  to  be  found.  Cowardice  and  treachery  dis- 
tinguished the  Roman  arms.  It  was  during  the  prog- 
ress of  this  war  that  Sulla,  one  of  the  greatest  minds 
Rome  ever  produced,  came  into  notice.  Marius  also 
became  conspicuous,  and  the  change  introduced  by 
him  in  the  method  of  raising  the  army  turned  the  old 
burgess  militia  into  mercenaries,  hirelings  whose 
own  the  sheep  were  not. 

A  few  only  of  the  many  instances  have  been  given. 
Unnumbered  crimes,  the  cruelties  of  weakness,  have 
been  passed  over.  One  sole  witness  has  been  called 
against  Rome.  Rome  herself  testifies  trumpet- 
tongued.  The  overwhelming  evidence  cannot  be 
met  or  evaded.    Consistent  in  dignity  and  moral  ele- 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

vation  so  long  as  her  stock  was  uncontaminated ; 
equally  consistent  as  her  race  vigor  declined  in  base- 
ness, she  struts  before  us,  callous  to  shame,  proud 
even  of  her  degradation.  But  the  feet  of  the  image 
were  of  clay!  And  lo!  the  stone  cut  out  without 
hands  is  poised  to  smite/ 

The  Cimbri  moved  upon  Italy.^  They  occupied 
the  territory  of  a  tribe  friendly  to  Rome.  Carbo 
ordered  them  away.  Instead  of  attacking,  they  com- 
plied. Carbo  gave  them  guides  who  led  them  into 
an  ambush  he  had  prepared  for  them.  The  only 
thing  which  preserved  the  treacherous  Romans  from 
being  utterly  annihilated  was  the  bad  weather.  As 
it  was,  they  succeeded  with  great  loss  in  escaping. 

New  levies  were  with  difficulty  made.  With  them 
the  consul  Silanus  attacked  in  Southern  Gaul.^  So 
thorough  was  the  defeat  that  the  Cimbri  took  the 
Roman  camp.  The  disturbed  conditions  roused  the 
Helvetii,  who  lured  Longinus  into  an  ambush,  de- 
stroyed him  and  his  legate  and  the  greater  portion 
of  his  soldiers,^  and  having  taken  half  of  all  the  prop- 
erty and  exacted  hostages,  passed  the  survivors  under 
the  yoke  and  let  them  go.  Finally  on  the  Rhone  at 
Arausio,  "Orange,"  the  Romans  met  the  Cimbri  and 
another  Cannae.  One  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
soldiers  and  camp  followers  were  slain.  Few  escaped 
— ten,  it  is  said.  Terrified  Rome  lay  open  to  the  in- 
vaders. The  Cimbri,  however,  turned  to  Spain  and 
thus  gave  a  delay  of  two  years  for  Marius  to  raise, 
drill  and  discipline  a  fresh  army.  An  alarming 
shortage  of  men  fit  for  service  was  disclosed. 

1  Daniel,  II,  34.  -  11^  b.  c.  ^  jq^  3.  c.  *  107  B.  c. 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

There  was  still  virtue  left  in  the  old  stock.  Gaius 
Marius  was  the  son  of  a  poor  day  laborer  born^  at 
what  is  to-day  Casamare,  "Marius'  home."  He  was 
a  man  of  but  moderate  ability,  but  in  that  day,  when 
Rome  was  drained  of  generals  as  she  was  of  soldiers, 
Marius  ranked  high.  In  spite  of  the  folly  of  the 
oligarchy,  which  had  constantly  repressed  talented 
men  and  was  especially  bitter  against  "new  men," 
Marius  was  elected  consul.  The  services  of  how 
many  good  men  by  this  repression  Rome  had  lost 
during  all  these  years  cannot  be  estimated.  Rome's 
Lincolns  were  carefully  kept  splitting  rails. 

On  the  Rhone  at  Aquae  Sextiae,^  and  a  little  later  on 
the  Po,  where  Hannibal  fought  his  first  battle,  the 
peasant's  son,  chosen,  not  by  the  Senate,  but  by  the 
people,  saved  Rome.  Sulla  was  acting  with  him  and 
showed  marked  ability. 

Race  vigor,  which  had  made  up  the  loss  in  the 
first  northern  incursion,  when  Rome  was  taken  and 
burnt,^  was  now  lacking.  Rome  drives  her  Italian 
allies  into  the  social  war,  and  Italy,  saved  from  the 
Cimbri,  is  desolated  by  internecine  strife.  Marius 
is  slighted  and  crowded  to  one  side,  and  later  in  the 
strife  of  factions,  burning  with  vengeance,  sides  with 
the  demagogues.  At  first  Sulla,  who  sides  with  the 
oligarchy,  storms  Rome  with  his  army  destined  for 
Asia,  and  drives  Marius  into  exile.  Later  Sulla, 
quite  indifferent  to  the  hostility  towards  him  which 
had  become  manifest,  embarks  for  Asia.  Marius 
returns  and  the  terror  begins.  The  blood  just  shed 
by  the  proscriptions  of  the  social  war  was  scarce  dry! 

1  155   B.C.  2  102   B.  C.  3  2JO   B.  C. 

["33 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

So  hated  were  the  Italians  in  Asia  that  Mithri- 
dates  had  no  difficulty  in  arranging  a  general  mas- 
sacre. The  secret  was  wtU  kept.  In  a  day^  one  hun- 
dred thousand  were  slain,  and  later,  in  the  island  of 
Delos,  twenty  thousand  more,  and  that  great  mart  of 
the  Romans  and  of  the  pirates  was  wrecked. 

Mithridates  was  indeed  formidable.  Of  vast  re- 
sources, a  capital  Eastern  politician  of  immense 
energy,  his  stupidity  as  a  military  man  alone  pre- 
vented disaster  to  Rome.  As  he  had  control  of  the 
sea,  his  commanding  general  proposed  by  slow  star- 
vation to  compel  Sulla  to  retire.  Mithridates  over- 
ruled him  and  sent  him  imperative  orders  to  attack 
instantly.  Sulla,  who  had  restored  fighting  disci- 
pline, defeated  him,  shut  him  up  in  Athens  and  be- 
sieged the  city. 

At  Rome  the  triumphant  Marians  burned  Sulla's 
house,  laid  waste  his  country  estate,  outlawed  him, 
compelled  his  wife  and  children  to  fly  for  their  lives 
to  his  camp  and  appointed  Marius  general  of  the 
East  in  his  stead.  Sulla  coolly  continued  the  siege. 
Nothing  seemed  to  disturb  the  plans  of  this  remark- 
able man. 

In  Africa,  whither  he  went  years  before  as  a  tyro 
and  in  an  incredibly  brief  space  mastered  the  art  of 
war,  Marius  had  sent  him  to  negotiate  for  the  sur- 
render of  Jugurtha  by  the  father-in-law  to  whom  he 
had  fled  for  protection.  Sulla  passed  through  the  hos- 
tile army  with  a  few  attendants  as  calmly  as  if  cross- 
ing the  Forum  and  spent  days  in  convincing  the  King 

1  88  B.  c. 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

that  Rome's  friendship  was  better  worth  than  that 
of  an  able  and  crafty  son-in-law.  All  the  time  Sulla's 
life  hung  by  a  thread.  It  was  his  head  or  Jugurtha's. 
He  coolly  diced  with  destiny  and  won.  Later  Marius 
led  Jugurtha,  apparelled  in  all  his  royal  state,  in 
triumph  through  Rome.  But  when  Jugurtha  had 
entered  the  *'bath  of  ice,"  as  he  called  the  chilly 
vault  beneath  the  Capitol  where  he  was  strangled, 
and  the  African  king  sent  a  piece  of  sculpture 
to  Rome  to  commemorate  his  pious  surrender  of 
his  son-in-law — unveiled,  it  showed  Sulla,  not  Ma- 
rius, receiving  Jugurtha!  The  King  understood  the 
facts. 

Sulla's  goddess  was  a  combination  of  love  and  for- 
tune. He  always  carried  her  little  golden  image 
about  him.  He  believed  absolutely  in  her  peculiar 
favor.  He  really  cared  but  for  pleasure  and  faced 
danger  and  arduous  toil  that  he  might  win  for  him- 
self periods  of  luscious  riot.  Then  he  was  easy,  neg- 
ligent, diverted ;  but  with  an  object  in  view,  intense, 
concentrated,  alert.  He  passed  through  life  tasting 
every  excitement,  unhampered  by  any  scruple, 
equally  amused  by  the  bufifoon,  perilous  negotiation, 
or  military  conquest,  his  physical  energy  never 
jaded,  his  appetite  for  pleasure  never  satiated. 

Such  was  the  man  who,  with  a  small,  ill-supplied 
army,  faced  the  most  powerful  sovereign  of  the  East. 
To  increase  his  peril,  Flaccus,  who  on  Marius'  death 
had  been  appointed  in  his  place,  had  with  his  army 
crossed  into  Greece  and  was  moving  toward  Athens. 
Sulla  pressed  the  siege  with  the  greatest  vigor  and 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

finally  took  the  place/  All  other  conquerors  re- 
spected her  aforetime  glory.  Sulla  alone  was  indif- 
ferent to  her  glory  as  he  was  to  all  glory.  Flaccus 
was  killed  later  in  a  mutiny  of  his  soldiers.  His  suc- 
cessor Fimbria,  a  demagogue  who  incited  the  revolt, 
when  Sulla  faced  him  committed  suicide  and  the 
armies  coalesced.  With  Mithridates  peace  was 
concluded.  Indifferent  to  his  fearful  massacre,  Sulla 
granted  him  the  title  of  Friend  and  Ally  of  Rome, 
and  her  only  dangerous  foreign  adversary,  for  the 
time  being,  was  suppressed.  Entirely  at  his  leisure, 
Sulla  made  his  arrangements  to  return.  The 
Marians  were  confident.  Did  they  not  have  Rome 
and  all  Italy  at  their  back,  a  force  to  which  that  of 
Sulla  was  a  mere  bagatelle?  Sulla  crossed  west- 
ward into  Italy  with  a  much  smaller  army  compara- 
tively than  that  with  which  Caesar  a  few  years  later 
crossed  eastward  into  Greece  to  meet  Pompey.  A 
brilliant  campaign  brought  him  to  Rome.^  The 
struggle  grew  more  horrible  as  it  grew  in  length,  and 
ended  in  a  series  of  butcheries.  The  world  lay  at 
Sulla's  feet. 

Notwithstanding  the  monstrous  things  he  did, 
Sulla,  so  far  as  possible,  acted  in  conformity  with 
law.  In  general  it  was  a  simple  process,  for  the 
Senate,  learning  his  wish,  enacted  it.  The  vast 
powers  he  assumed,  on  his  demand  were  sanctioned. 
The  lives  and  property  of  all  citizens  were  placed  in 
his  hands.  His  soldiers  and  his  friends  clamored 
for  reward  and  there  was  plenty  of  property,  prefer- 
ably that  of  the  Marians.     The  Marians,  in  their 

1  86  B.  C.  2  g2  B.  C. 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

days  of  triumph,  had  murdered  wholesale.  Marius 
himself  had  slain  with  vengeful  fury.  Now  the  Sul- 
lans  slew,  Sulla  himself  with  the  indifference  of  a 
machine.  His  personal  vengeance  was  limited  to  a 
few.  As  a  rule,  not  always  by  any  means,  the  pro- 
scribed could  see  their  names  in  the  lists  which  were, 
more  or  less,  duly  posted.  One  quiet  and  unpretend- 
ing citizen,  on  finding  his  name,  exclaimed,  "My  Al- 
ban  farm  hath  denounced  me!"  Of  course  confisca- 
tion was  fast  and  furious.  Eighteen  million  dollars, 
which  must  be  multiplied  many  times  to  reach  the 
present  equivalent,  expresses  some  idea  of  the  sum 
in  which  the  wealthy  were  mulcted.  The  Marian 
fury  had  been  fierce.  That  of  the  "conservatives" — 
think  of  such  a  title  for  such  a  party ! — was  deliberate, 
cool,  methodical,  and  all  the  more  terrible  because 
utterly  remorseless.  Was  the  boasted  Roman  Repub- 
lic governed  by  men  or  demons? 

Even  during  the  terror  Sulla  found  time  for  en- 
joyment. Tawny  hair,  piercing  blue  eyes,  fair  com- 
plexion readily  suffused  with  color  as  emotion  and 
red  blood  surged  within,  Norseman  that  he  was,  he 
presided  over  constant  and  splendid  entertainments, 
taking  more  pleasure  in  a  witty  actor  than  in  the  de- 
generate men  and  women  of  the  old  nobility  who 
elbowed  their  way  in. 

Nevertheless  on  him  was  thrown  the  burden  of 
reorganizing  the  Constitution.  He  hated  the  task, 
but  there  was  no  other  mind  of  surpassing  ability  in 
Rome.  What  other  Roman  would  have  brought 
back  from  Athens  Aristotle's  works?  Even  Caesar 
was  then  but  a  stripling  and,  moreover,  out  of  favor. 

D173 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

He  was  not  boasting,  as  he  did  later,  of  his  family- 
connection  with  Marius,  but  took  a  foreign  trip  and 
probably  learned  at  this  time  that  to  be  a  political 
power  the  condition  precedent  was  to  be  the  com- 
mander of  an  army. 

It  is  useless  to  detail  Sulla's  laws.  These  soon 
passed  or  were  modified  out  of  life.  They  restored 
the  worthless  oligarchy  to  power.  It  was  too  feeble 
to  retain  it.  Sulla  knew  Rome's  capacity  for  self- 
government  was  dead.  Flooding  the  Senate  with 
new  creations  gave  numbers,  but  not  character  and 
mentality.  He  would  not  take  the  trouble  to  govern 
the  world  himself.  All  he  would  do  was  to  buttress 
his  Senate  with  the  best  props  he  could  devise.  In 
the  first  place,  he  allotted  (not  to  the  staunch  old  Ro- 
man husbandmen:  they,  alas!  were  no  more)  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  small  land-holdings 
whose  title  was  linked  to  the  existence  of  the  govern- 
ment which  created  them.  This  gave  the  Senate  all 
through  Italy  a  wide  support  and  at  the  same  time 
gave  Sulla's  soldiers  and  adherents  their  reward.  In 
the  second  place,  he  decreed  freedom  to  ten  thousand 
lusty  young  slaves,  a  civic  army,  a  body-guard  for 
the  Senate.  Finally,  to  make  it  clear  to  all  that  civil 
law  and  the  Senate  were  supreme,  even  over  the 
army,  which  had  reestablished  both,  he,  when  Ofella, 
his  leading  general,  offered  himself  illegally  in  the 
market-place  as  a  candidate,  had  him  cut  down 
where  he  stood,  and  calmly  explained  to  the  people 
the  why  and  wherefore. 

Then  a  little  space  and  the  deep  blue  dome  of  the 
Italian  sky  for  the  first  and  last  time  looked  down 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

upon  an  astounding  ceremony.  In  the  unhampered 
exercise  of  absolute  power,  Sulla,  with  bitter  enemies 
in  every  street  of  that  great  city — Rome — and  in 
every  town  of  Italy,  called  the  people  together  and 
in  conformity  with  the  spirit  of  his  own  legislation 
laid  down  his  office,  dismissed  his  few  guards  of 
state,  and  having  asked  the  assemblage  if  any  had 
aught  to  say  against  him,  and  having  been  answered 
by  complete  silence,  left  the  tribunal,  and  without 
any  armed  escort  whatever,  once  more  a  private  citi- 
zen, walked  through  the  dense  crowd  to  his  own 
house.    The  whole  transaction  is  unique  in  history. 

Sulla  is  a  singular  example,  the  first  Rome  pro- 
duced in  the  course  of  seven  hundred  years,  of  a  man 
of  genius  who  broke  through  rigid  tradition  and  yet 
was  constrained  to  conform  to  conditions  which  were 
the  result  of  centuries  of  Roman  life,  conditions 
which  he  knew  to  be  degenerate,  weak,  foolish, 
wicked,  but  which  he  recognized  at  the  same  time  as 
imperative  and  not  by  any  one  man  to  be  radically 
changed.  Rome  had  taken  generations  to  become 
degraded,  and  as  he  could  not  recreate  he  was  forced 
to  deal  with  her  in  her  degradation.  In  early  days 
the  Romans  revered  the  magistrate  when  he  spake. 
Now  they  revered  him  when  he  butchered.  For  this 
reason  they  revered  Sulla,  and  when  he  died  a  little 
later  they  gave  him  a  funeral  beyond  comparison 
magnificent. 

This  was  the  Sulla  who,  of  the  many  which  he 
fought,  never  lost  a  battle,  who  in  affairs  of  state 
never  took  a  backward  step,  who  before  considering 
his  own  interest  invariably  protected  Rome,  indeed, 

1:1193 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

did  so  more  than  once  at  the  hazard  of  his  life,  who 
at  a  time  when  peace  was  impossible  because  the  uni- 
versal treachery  and  falsehood  barred  the  way,  faith- 
fully kept  his  engagements,  who  snatched  every  free 
moment  for  pleasure,  but  under  stress  knew  no  relax- 
ation, who  slew  political  opponents  by  the  thousand, 
and  then,  upon  reflection,  by  law  abolished  the  death 
penalty  for  political  crime — who  held  the  kingdoms 
of  this  world  in  his  hands,  and  at  the  first  possible 
moment  flung  them  all  away.  Like  every  great 
genius,  Sulla  lived  a  paradox  and  died  an  enigma. 

When  Sulla  died  the  Roman  governmental  ma- 
chine stood  apparently  in  running  order,  but  the 
driving  power,  the  energizing  force  of  Rome,  died 
with  him.  There  were  but  t^vo  able  Romans  left,  for 
Pompeius  had  reached  the  top  of  his  intellectual 
bent,  and  henceforth  barely  held  his  own.  One  of 
these  men,  Caesar,  was  but  twenty-four  years  of  age, 
and  his  ability,  unlike  that  of  Alexander,  was  as  yet 
undeveloped.  The  other,  Sertorius,  was  making  a 
war  upon  the  oligarchy  in  Spain. 

Before  Sulla  died,  Sertorius  with  a  small  force 
had  fought  his  way  through  the  Roman  fleet  at  Gib- 
raltar and  returned  to  Spain. ^  He  immediately  be- 
gan organizing  and  Romanizing  that  province,  not 
by  the  Roman  method  of  extirpation,  but  on  lines  of 
kindly  affiliation,  lines  which  in  a  general  way  Gaius 
Gracchus  would  fain  have  followed.  He  had  origi- 
nally been  sent  by  Marius  as  governor  and  general  to 
Spain.  He  now  resumed  the  titles  and  as  a  Roman 
officer  formed  from  the  immigrants  a  Senate  and  be- 

1  80  B.  C. 

D20:] 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

gan  Roman  instruction  of  high-born  Spanish  youth. 
His  diplomacy  won  over  the  powerful  organization 
of  pirates  which  not  only  checked  the  Roman  navy 
but  cut  ofif  supplies  for  her  army.  His  dealings  even 
extended  as  far  East  as  the  court  of  Mithridates, — 
and  his  brilliant  generalship  left  the  oligarchy  scarce 
a  foothold  in  Spain.  Broad-minded,  kind,  chivalrous, 
unRoman  in  that  he  was  never  brutal  nor  faithless,  he 
stands  forth,  now  that  narrowing  Roman  tradition 
was  breaking  down,  a  winning  and  a  solitary  figure. 
Unfortunately  he  was  compelled  to  act  with  other 
Romans.  His  loyal  Spanish  body-guard  were  all 
slain,  and  he  was  assassinated  when  Perpenna  flung 
down  the  wine  cup  at  the  feast.^ 

It  is  a  consolation  to  record  that  every  one  of  those 
assassins  died  a  violent  death.  Perpenna  the  first; 
for  he  did  not  endear  himself  to  the  army  by  his 
crime,  and  Pompeius  easily  defeated  it,  half-hearted 
as  it  was.  Perpenna  to  save  his  life  offered  to  sur- 
render Sertorius'  correspondence,  which  involved 
all  the  leading  democrats.  Pompeius  kept  his  good 
fame,  burnt  the  papers  unread,  and  sent  the  evil 
creature  to  execution. 

The  feebleness  and  incapacity  of  the  oligarchy  can- 
not be  believed.  The  pirates  with  a  developed  sys- 
tem plundered  the  eastern  coasts  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  even  Ostia.  The  population  of  islands 
and  places  accessible  to  the  sea  migrated.  The  old 
Greek  temples,  whose  treasures  had  been  accumu- 
lated for  generations,  were  looted.  Apollo  had 
scarce  a  single  gold  piece  left.     What  the  pirates 

1  72  B.  C. 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

passed  over,  the  Roman  governors  stole  and  the  East 
was  plunged  into  hopeless  debt.  Misery  was  univer- 
sal. Egypt  was  offered  to  the  Senate,  which  dared 
not  accept,  as  they  knew  they  were  too  feeble  to  con- 
trol any  representative  backed  by  Egypt's  resources. 
Mithridates  declared  war,^  but  the  murder  of  Serto- 
rius  in  Spain  freed  Rome's  hands,  and  in  Lucullus 
Rome  fortunately  found  a  bold  and  fearless  general: 
a  general,  however,  who  after  victories  and  defeats, 
at  the  end  of  eight  years  had  not  gained  a  foot.  His 
army,  grown  weary  of  campaigns  where  hard  knocks 
took  the  place  of  booty,  became  insubordinate  and  his 
brilliant  hopes  were  blighted.  After  this  he  sought 
solace  in  villas,  fish  ponds,  and  perhaps  peacocks' 
brains  and  ortolans'  tongues!  Spartacus,  for  whom 
Mommsen  hints  a  royal  descent,  led  a  slave  revolt 
which  shook  all  Italy.^  Through  the  mirk  we  can 
discern  Caesar  struggling  forward  by  devious  ways, 
Cicero  winning  fame,  and  Pompeius  prominent,  but 
a  prominence  which  but  half  met  his  vanity. 

So  weak  was  the  Senate  that  the  mob  had  its  own 
way.  A  revolution  led  by  demagogues  placed  Pom- 
peius in  supreme  command.^  In  six  years  the  pirates 
were  crushed,  temporarily  at  least;  Mithridates  van- 
quished, the  East  reorganized,  and  Pompeius^  re- 
ceived regal  honors  and  the  magistracy  for  life. 
Caesar's  wild  beasts  for  the  games  were  exhibited  in 
solid  silver  cages.  Catilina,  at  one  time  the  public 
executioner  for  Sulla,  emerged,  malignant,  criminal 
and  furtive.  He  now  ofifered  at  the  hand  of  his  con- 
spirators to  murder  a  way  to  power  before  Pompeius 

1  74  B.C.  273^1  B.C.  3  57  B.C.  4  61  B.C. 

1:122: 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

should  return.  Facts  seem  to  implicate  Caesar  and 
Crassus  with  Catilina  in  the  sinister  attempt  which 
failed/  Again,  two  years  later,  the  plot  included  a 
plan  to  seize  Pompeius'  children  as  hostages,^  but 
Cicero  was  elected  consul  and  Catilina  beaten. 
Again  the  next  year  Catilina  attempted,  was  out- 
witted, fled  to  his  little  army,  and  died  fighting.^ 
The  audacity  of  the  villains  can  be  accounted  for 
only  by  the  fact  that  they  had  powerful  and  secret 
support.  Indignation  grew.  Caesar's  life  was  threat- 
ened and  Crassus  prepared  to  fly.  All  this  was  in 
reality  a  series  of  conspiracies  levelled  against  Pom- 
peius, who  was  on  the  point  of  returning  in  great 
power  to  Italy  at  the  head  of  his  victorious  army. 
Caesar  and  Crassus  were  desperate.  There  was  but 
one  resource — a  league  with  Pompeius,  and  so  the 
first  triumvirate  was  formed.  Caesar  received  Gaul 
and  the  longed-for  legions,  gave  his  fondly  loved 
daughter  Julia  in  marriage  to  Pompeius  and  the  be- 
ginning of  the  end  was  in  sight. 

How  Caesar  wrought  in  Gaul  he  tells  us.  It  is  a 
sordid  and  a  sodden  story.'*  Thence  by  violence  and 
rapine  the  treasures  were  secured  which  for  years 
bought  carefully  selected  and  unscrupulous  agents, 
built  stately  public  edifices,  silenced  criticism  and 
bribed  voters.  Cssar  hints  at  a  million  slain  and  a 
million  more  sold  into  slavery.  If  this  is  true,  he 
probably  swept  off  a  fifth,  and  that  fifth  the  flower  of 
a  splendid  population.  Where  Sulla  slew  his  hun- 
dreds, Caesar  slew  his  thousands.    Crassus,  the  rich- 

1  67  B.  C.  -  65  B.  C.  3  62  B.  C. 

*Oman,  Hist.  England,  Vol.  I,  p.  34. 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

est  man  in  Rome,  grasping  at  all  things,  found  that 
he  and  his  insatiable  desires  could  all  be  packed  in  a 
small  Parthian  grave.'  Julia  died,^  and  Pompeius, 
joining  hands  with  the  Senate,  was  defeated  at  Phar- 
salia,^  slain  in  Egypt,  and  Caesar,  his  feet,  his  hands, 
his  raiment  one  red,  emerged  supreme. 

During  the  years  of  Caesar's  absence  in  Gaul  the 
condition  of  Rome  was  indescribably  pitiful.  Bands 
of  armed  ruffians  called  the  streets  their  own.  Gladi- 
ators plied  their  trade  outside  the  circus.  Citizens 
were  regularly  besieged  in  their  houses.  Cato  was  a 
prisoner  in  his  garden.  Clodius  had  sharded  his  pa- 
trician rank  and  as  a  plebeian  led  the  mad  orgy.  It 
paid  him  well,  for  through  his  command  of  votes  he, 
like  Caesar,  kept  on  sale  rights  from  sovereignty  to 
tax  collecting,  and  in  riot  found  profitable  rule.  Of 
Pompeius  he  made  a  mock,  perhaps  not  altogether  to 
Caesar's  misliking.  Already  the  loudest  shouts  at 
the  meetings  of  the  burgesses  were  those  of  for- 
eigners, freedmen  and  slaves,  and  often  they  cast 
most  of  the  votes.  Clodius  proposed  to  legalize  his 
method  of  "developing"  Rome's  "resources"  by  giv- 
ing freedmen  and  nominal  slaves  the  same  rights  and 
votes  as  free-born  citizens. 

The  page  of  history  is  stained  by  no  name  more 
infamous  than  that  of  Clodius.  Perhaps  some  rem- 
nant of  patriotism  stirred  faintly  within  him.  He 
paused  and  never  made  the  suggestion  a  law.  He 
contemplated  making  Greeks,  Syrians,  Jews,  Span- 
iards full  members  of  the  Roman  brotherhood. 
These  for  the  most  part  constituted  in  Rome  the  serv- 

1  53  B.C.  -  54  B-c.  ^48  B.C. 

C124] 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

ile  class.  We  took  our  negro  slaves  and  not  only  gave 
them  the  franchise,  but  placed  them  by  force  and  by 
statute  for  years  in  absolute  control  of  our  own  kin — 
gallant  men  who  had  fought  us  fairly — splendid  wo- 
men, blood  of  our  blood,  flesh  of  our  flesh.  By  means 
of  the  negro  vote  we  plundered  the  South  as  Rome 
plundered  the  provinces.  As  late  as  the  winter  of 
1 874-1 875,  nine  years  after  the  war  ended,  at  a 
session,  largely  attended,  of  the  lower  house  of  the 
legislature  of  the  sovereign  State  of  Louisiana  not  a 
white  man  was  present  to  represent  the  great  white 
race  which  owned  the  land.  A  huge  negro,  black  as 
coal,  presided  and  bellowed  through  his  bull-necked 
throat  his  orders  to  his  fellow  blacks.  Imitating 
Rome  yet  once  again,  we  forced  universal  bank- 
ruptcy upon  a  proud  and  ruined  people,  our  own 
blood  kin.  It  ill  becomes  us  to  cast  the  first  stone  at 
Clodius.  He  had  his  day  of  reckoning  many  cen- 
turies ago.  Ours  is  dragging  on,  but  unless  we  can 
loose  Orion's  bands  or  stay  the  stars  in  their  courses 
we  cannot  escape.  Ten  million  malignant  cankers 
gnaw  the  vitals  of  our  body  politic  and  to  them  we 
have  wantonly  added  unnumbered  other  slaves — 
slaves  of  ignorance  and  vice — slaves  who  neither  can 
nor  will  learn  and  understand  free  customs  and  free 
institutions.  We  can  no  more  avoid  the  sweep  of  the 
eternal  laws  than  could  Rome.  For  us  the  infamous 
Clodius  blushes. 

Of  the  same  race,  dowered  with  the  same  "grey 
matter,"  Athens,  Sparta,  Rome  varied  in  education 
and  varied  in  results.  Athens,  liberal  in  her  training, 
freely  produced  great  men,  men  great  in  art,  litera- 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

ture,  science,  philosophy,  war,  statecraft.  Sparta, 
hide-bound,  narrow,  prejudiced,  in  her  whole  career 
produced  but  two  men  of  independent  thought,^  and 
ultimately  choked  out  her  own  very  life."  Rome,  in- 
sistent on  uniformity,  bending  over  her  muck-rake  in 
perpetual  search  of  gross  physical  good,  despising  in- 
tellectual pursuits  as  unpractical,  bigoted  in  these 
false  ideals  as  in  a  religion,  produced  in  seven  hun- 
dred fifty  years  many  capable  men,  but  among 
them  only  two  at  all  worthy  to  rank  with  the  great  in- 
tellects of  Greece.  Mommsen  names  but  one — 
Caesar,  To  him,  however,  may  perhaps  be  added 
Sulla,  of  equally  independent  and,  it  may  be,  more 
original  thought  and  of  perhaps  greater  intuition, 
for  he  knew  the  Roman  State  was  sick  unto  death, 
and  that  no  general  statute  could  purge  the  com- 
mon-weal. He  realized  the  helplessness  of  one 
man  in  a  combat  with  fundamental  forces,  and 
that  therefore  domination  and  power  for  such  end 
in  his  hands  would  be  futile,  and  so  believing, 
flung  away  as  a  worthless  bauble  what  Caesar  died 
to  keep. 

It  must  be  noted  also  that  neither  Sulla  nor  Caesar 
appears  until  decaying  race  vigor  permitted  the  bands 
of  restraining  discipline  to  drop  to  pieces  and  al- 
lowed in  turmoil  and  confusion  freer  education,  freer 
thought.  As  if  to  punctuate  this  important  fact,  the 
greater  part  of  Latin  literature  was  created  in  this 
period  of  change,  and  Roman  philosophical  science 
on  mighty  pinions  soars  but  once  in  exalted  flight: 

^Cleomenes,  died  c.  489  B.  c.     Barsidas,  c.  424  B.C. 

^Sparta,  370  B.C.,  had  but  1,500  male  citizens.    Bury,  Greece,  II,  174. 

D26] 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

the  song  Lucretius  sang  amid  the  din  of  civil  strife, 
the  shine  of  civil  swords. 

It  is  interesting  to  remark  all  through  this  recital 
that  in  the  face  of  the  onrush  of  race  life  the  individ- 
ual factor,  hov^ever  potent  it  may  be,  if  in  opposition 
is  helpless — a  mere  anachronism.  Cato  the  elder, 
had  he  lived  two  centuries  earlier,  would  have  been 
commonplace.  As  it  was,  he  was  born  out  of  due 
time.  Over  him  swept  the  advancing  surge.  And 
all  these  men  and  women,  as  they  pass,  even  the  great- 
est of  them,  act  and  speak  seemingly  of  their  own  ini- 
tiative, but  in  reality  their  parts  are  written  for  them. 
They  are  but  creatures  of  the  moment — victims  of 
the  conditions  created  for  them  by  immemorial  an- 
cestry, each  member  of  which  has  either  somewhat 
mended  or  somewhat  marred  their  fortune:  of  a 
truth  a  mighty  power,  a  power  in  which  they  them- 
selves in  their  turn  share  and  are  at  once  created  and 
creating.  Our  responsibilities  begin  with  us  and 
never  die. 

The  miracle  play  called  "Rome"  moves  down  the 
centuries  unfolding  with  remorseless  logic,  each  in- 
dividual a  free  agent,  each  individual  subject  to  un- 
changing law.  As  he  sows,  so  also  shall  he  reap,  and 
the  multitudinous  units,  ever  combined  and  ever  sepa- 
rate, make  the  changeless  record  of  the  "Comedy  Di- 
vine": deeply  religious,  declaring  the  Glory  of 
God;  deeply  significant,  showing  His  handiwork. 
As  with  earnest  thought  we  search  out  the  divine  law 
and  with  willing  heart  and  mind,  or  even  unwit- 
tingly, obey,  we  rise  on  intellectual  wing  sublime;  as, 
led  astray  by  power,  luxury,  vice  and  sloth,  we  each 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

give  up  that  intense  individual  striving  (the  throb- 
bing heart  of  vigorous  race  life),  the  struggle  to 
search  out  and  obey,  the  glory  that  was  Greece  de- 
parts, and  even  the  arch  of  wide-ranged  empire  that 
was  Rome  crumbles  into  dust.  Americans!  there 
stands  the  record.  He  who  runs  may  read.  The 
wayfaring  man  may  not  err  therein.  Gird  up  your 
loins,  make  strong  your  hearts,  the  day  of  reckoning 
is  upon  us.    It  is  not  too  late. 


Caesar  owned  his  world.  It  was  an  evil  world  and 
with  all  the  phases  of  that  evil  Caesar  was  thoroughly 
familiar.  Heavy  as  was  the  price  he  had  already 
paid,  it  was  but  an  installment,  and  the  insistent  col- 
lector stood  ever  at  his  elbow.  No  Roman,  high  or 
low,  worked.  He  could  beg  or  steal,  but  to  work  he 
was  ashamed.  For  the  loafer  in  the  small  room  in 
one  of  the  many  vast  buildings,  rabbit  warrens,  which 
were  the  tenements  of  Rome,  for  the  loafer  in  the 
palace  which  might  adjoin  it  and  cover  an  acre  or  so 
of  ground,  all  the  toil  was  done  by  slaves — imported 
labor!  For  generations  this  particular  process  of  de- 
energizing  the  Romans  had  gone  on.  At  first  trans- 
mitted as  a  tendency,  incapacity  for  self-help  was  now 
transmitted  as  a  condition  of  being.  It  pervaded  all 
sides  of  life.  Why  investigate  natural  causes  to  learn 
labor-saving  devices  when  the  "speaking  tool"  stood 
at  hand?  The  trifling  amount  of  Roman  philosophy 
was  shorn  of  all  attempt  to  study  natural  science. 
"We  have  heard  the  fame  thereof  with  our  ears,"  but 
it  is  both  difficult  and  useless.    The  first  sun-dial  set 

1:128:] 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

up  in  Rome  was  made  for  a  place  four  degrees  away, 
and  the  Romans  did  not  find  it  out  for  a  hundred 
years.  Before  the  Civil  War  the  vast  majority  of 
patents  in  the  United  States  were  taken  out  by  North- 
ern men,  including  even  the  cotton  gin.  In  Italy  or 
America  the  same  cause  produced  the  same  effects. 

Who  could  help  Caesar  in  governmental  work? 
Who  was  fitted  to  be  his  Secretary  of  State  and  per- 
form its  duties?  There  was  no  Roman.  Who  was 
fitted  to  be  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  transact  its 
business?  There  was  no  Roman.  The  huge  burden 
fell  on  Csesar,  and  valiantly  did  he  take  up  the  task. 
Just  as  the  Roman  merchant  for  centuries  had  trans- 
acted his  affairs,  so  Caesar,  following  his  example, 
transacted  the  affairs  of  the  Empire.  For  years  a 
Phoenician  had  been  his  treasurer.  The  Phoenician 
continued  so  to  act.  Freedmen  and  slaves  trained  to 
somewhat  equivalent  work  filled  and  overflowed  the 
vast  place  he  called  his  house,  and  these  formed  his 
official  staff  and  conducted  Roman  affairs.  Orna- 
mental offices  could  be  filled  by  ornamental  names. 
Real  men  were  wanting.  To  construct  the  Ship  of 
State  there  was  no  Roman  timber  left.  A  miserable 
second  growth  fit  only  for  firewood  had  come  up 
from  the  old  stumps. 

Those  great  pillars  of  commerce  which  the  wanton 
oligarchy  had  destroyed,  Carthage  and  Corinth, 
must  be  rebuilt.  The  order  was  given.  New  blood, 
not  by  any  means  of  necessity  Roman,  must  be  poured 
into  the  Senate.  It  was.  The  incapable  poor  of 
Rome  must  be  fed.  They  were.  Those  capable  must 
be  taken  off  the  pauper  lists  and  sent  out  into  col- 

1:129:] 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

onies.  This  work  was  begun.  Every  little  thing, 
even  to  the  repairing  of  the  rain  holes  in  the  streets, 
demanded  his  personal  intervention.  Every  great 
thing  of  course  was  his  work.  The  whole  body  of  the 
law,  which  placed  the  control  of  affairs  in  his  hands 
and  which  became  the  foundation  for  imperial  rule 
for  fifteen  centuries,  was  originated  and  carried 
through  by  him.  His  incapable  successors  found  a 
ready-made  garment  and  slipped  it  on.  They  could 
not  have  invented  it  themselves.  The  whole  plan 
must  have  been  thought  out  by  Caesar  during  his  long 
upward  struggle,  for  the  length  of  his  actual  sojourn 
in  Rome  after  his  return  from  Egypt  could  better  be 
measured  by  months  than  years — a  vast  labor  volun- 
tarily assumed  and  involuntarily  laid  down! 

Perhaps  the  most  statesmanlike  measures — in  any 
point  of  view,  the  most  merciful,  were  those  which 
attempted  to  prevent  provincial  pillage.  These  were 
the  measures  without  any  doubt  which  were  the  im- 
mediate cause  of  his  death.  The  provinces,  so  long  a 
prey  to  the  infamous  greed  of  the  infamously  greedy, 
were  private  property  now  and  that  "courtesy  of  the 
Senate"  which  in  a  sort  of  rotation  commissioned  the 
criminal,  and  for  a  large  share  of  the  plunder  pro- 
tected him  in  his  crime,  was  forbidden.  The  Senate, 
black  with  impotent  rage,  passed  the  laws.  It  is  al- 
ways unsafe  to  snatch  a  bone  from  a  cur. 

Cesar's  Rome  was  the  vilest  spot  on  earth.  The 
vilest  houses  were  multiplied  everywhere.  The  vilest 
inhabited  them,  the  vilest  thronged  them.  These 
abominations  were  the  clubs,  the  social  and  civic  cen- 
tres.    In   them   public   offices  were   sold,   murders 

DsoU 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

planned,  law  suits  decided,  jurors  bought,  voters 
bribed.  They  were  the  headquarters  of  every  kind  of 
villainy.  Suddenly  the  sale  of  public  offices  ceased. 
There  was  but  one  man  who  could  appoint.  Murder, 
for  the  first  time  in  a  generation  or  two,  began  to  be  a 
dangerous  occupation.  A  past  master  in  that  art  was 
recognized.  The  judges  suddenly  began  to  wash 
their  hands.  The  jurors  began  to  weigh  evidence, 
and  not  gold  pieces,  and  many  choice  spots  of  real 
estate  rapidly  declined  in  value.  Thus  far  could  one 
man  go.  But  no  man  could  cleanse  Rome — at  least 
not  while  its  then  inhabitants  lived. 

Women  were  thoroughly  enfranchised.  The  word 
"wife"  to  a  great  extent  meant  a  thing  which  slipped 
on  and  off  like  an  old  shoe.  The  women  had  edu- 
cated the  men  to  a  curious  mental  attitude.  Cato,  to 
the  last,  had  opposed  Caesar.  After  the  battue  at 
Thapsus^  had  counted  fifty  thousand  corpses,  Cato, 
holding  Utica,  recognizing  that  he  was  making  the 
last  stand  on  this  earth  for  the  oligarchy,  and  having 
facilitated  those  of  his  friends  who  wished — to  de- 
part, and  having  assisted  those  of  his  friends  who 
desired — to  make  their  peace,  retired  to  his  own 
chamber  and  followed  the  admired  Roman  method 
of  bidding  farewell  to  this  life  and  greeting  the 
life  to  come.^  Cato,  although  not  by  any  means  a 
man  of  great  intellectual  force,  was  a  man  of  charac- 
ter and  a  Roman  gentleman.  He  learned  that  a 
friend  was  in  love  with  his  wife.  He  divorced  her 
and  gave  her  to  his  friend  in  marriage.  Later,  when 
she  became  a  widow,  Cato  remarried  her.    No  com- 

I46  B.  C.  2^6    B,  c. 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

ment  is  necessary.  This  incident  throws  light  on  his 
saying  that  it  behooved  the  rich  to  insure  family 
wealth  by  restricting  offspring.  Evidently  it  was 
well  known  that  the  offspring  of  those  days  could  not 
win  wealth  for  themselves.  The  woman  of  the  day 
managed  her  own  affairs  through  her  own  agent, 
whose  only  rival  was  the  curled,  mustached,  bejew- 
elled, lisping,  mincing-gaited  fop,  half  lover  and 
wholly  pandar,  who  wore  women's  shoes  and  daw- 
dled about  her.  If  she  dabbled  in  politics  she  rose  to 
the  height  of  the  corrupt  pothouse  politician.  If  she 
dabbled  in  murder  she  was  a  fiend  incarnate.  The 
Roman  system,  Sumner  says,  killed  women.  If  it 
killed  such  women  it  had  some  admirable  points. 
But  the  system  created  the  women.  Then  by  all 
means  kill  the  system! 

To  speak  of  motherhood  would  be  to  desecrate  a 
sacred  word. 

The  Roman  men  of  rank  had  been  accustomed  to 
serve  as  officers  in  the  army.  The  custom  still  ob- 
tained. Caesar  gives  an  amusing  account  of  their 
wailings  ^  when  an  advance  was  ordered,  of  the  pre- 
paration of  last  wills,  of  the  sudden  development  of 
incapacitating  disease,  of  the  applications  for  leave 
of  absence!  As  for  their  morality,  which  we  are  now 
considering,  it  is  impossible  to  describe  it.  The  facts 
are  so  much  worse  than  the  English  language  can 
express  that  one  may  well  hesitate  to  accept  the  testi- 
mony on  which  they  are  based.  There  is  one  author- 
ity, however,  who  writes  a  few  years  later  than  this 
time,  whose  word  may  not  be  doubted,  an  eyewitness 

1  Commentaries,  Chapter  XXXIX. 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

of  the  manners  of  his  time,  a  Roman  citizen,  a  gentle- 
man, one  who  had  mingled  in  society  and  knew  its 
ways.  Suddenly,  by  a  remarkable  interposition  he  was 
placed  apart,  and  though  in  the  world,  was  not  of  it. 
The  dread  sanction  under  which  he  spake  and  wrote 
was  above  and  beyond  any  mere  human  device  to  en- 
force truth,  no  matter  how  solemn  the  function,  and 
Paul  was  charged  to  bear  testimony  by  an  imposition 
more  imperative  than  any  mere  laying  on  of  hands. 
Turn  to  his  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
— read  from  the  twenty-fourth  verse  to  the  end.  Re- 
member the  sin  that  strikes  at  the  root  of  the  repro- 
duction of  humanity  and  then  remember  the  cities  of 
the  plain,  remember  Gomorrah,  remember  Sodom.^ 

In  discussing  the  moral  degradation  of  Rome  it  is 
unnecessary  to  remember  that  there  were  exceptions. 
There  has  been  but  one  city  where  the  Angel  of  the 
Lord  could  not  find  ten  righteous  men,^  and  in  the 
dreadful  times  which  preceded  and  followed  Caesar, 
devoted  men  and  women  of  all  ranks,  from  slaves  to 
senators,  faced  death  and  worse  for  the  love  they  bore 
each  other,  and  self-sacrifice,  burning  with  clear 
flame,  wafted  its  incense, — a  sweet  savor,  up  to  the 
throne  of  an  infinite  God.  Had  such  people  been  in 
a  majority,  the  awful  things  could  not  have  occurred. 
That  any  at  all  existed  in  Rome  at  this  period  is  a 
sure  foundation  for  hope  eternal. 

Let  us  turn  from  this  revolting  picture  of  immor- 
ality and  consider  intellectual  matters.  What  was 
the  mental  capacity  of  the  Romans  at  this  time?    We 

1  Once  high  treason.     Mommsen,  Vol.  I,  p.  i66. 

2  Genesis,  XVIII,  XIX. 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

know  Caesar  was  a  man  of  rare  ability.  What  of  the 
rest?  All  admit  he  left  no  Caesar  him  surviving. 
He  was  the  last  man  of  genius  for  nearly  two  thou- 
sand years  which  the  Mediterranean  coasts  pro- 
duced. For  eighteen  hundred  years  darkling  stood 
the  varying  shore  of  the  ancient  world.  Did  he  leave 
to  succeed  him  any  man  approaching  him  in  brain 
power?  No,  not  one.  He  left  nothing  but  little  men 
with  little  brains.  True,  they  differed  in  capacity. 
Men  were  no  more  "born  equal"  in  Rome  than  in  any 
other  place,  but  intelligence,  while  some  had  more 
and  some  had  less,  never  rose  above  rank  mediocrity, 
and  was  even  in  the  best  a  poor  commodity.  The 
proof  is  right  before  us. 

The  general  impression  given  by  historians — take, 
for  instance,  those  admirable  text-books  which  are 
now  written  for  our  schools — is  of  a  certain  uniform- 
ity in  human  capacity.  Attention  is  not  called  to 
changes.  No  standards  are  selected  and  referred  to. 
The  varying  intelligence  of  nations  or  peoples  is  not 
remarked  even  when  the  data  make  plain  the  differ- 
ence between  acumen  at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end 
of  each  century  described.  In  the  study  of  man,  and 
history  is  nothing  else,  growth  or  decline  in  mentality 
is  really  the  whole  story — beyond  all  other  things  the 
most  important  human  manifestation.  The  Roman  of 
Cato's  day  differed  radically  from  the  Roman  un- 
der Caesar,  and  both  from  the  so-called  Roman 
under  Constantine.  Men  prominent  in  any  age  are 
not  by  any  true  standard  necessarily  great.  Their 
eminence  indicates  merely  the  gulf  between  them 
and  their  fellows,  and  where  the  general  ability  is 

[■34] 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

well  below  that  of  men  who  preceded  them  by  two 
centuries,  their  leaders  must  be  classed  not  as  great 
men  but  as  mediocrities  who  are  distinguished  only 
by  reason  of  the  littleness  of  their  contemporaries. 
Among  pygmies  the  ordinary  man  is  a  giant.  In  the 
realm  of  the  blind  the  one-eyed  man  is  king. 

No  man  then  living  in  Rome  had  ever  known  it  as 
a  republic.  No  man  then  living  in  Rome  knew  what 
a  republic  was.  A  republic  is  a  state  of  mind.  So 
soon  as  Rome's  military  power  put  aside  all  fear  of 
national  calamity  and  corruption  of  blood  and  indi- 
vidual self-seeking  replaced  common  self-abnegation 
for  common  exaltation  of  the  commonwealth,  the 
state  of  mind  which  alone  makes  possible  a  republic 
ceased  to  exist.  While  that  state  of  mind  endured  a 
republic  only  was  possible.  When  it  ceased,  tyranny 
by  the  many  or  by  the  one,  only  was  possible.  For 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  Rome,  retaining  many  of 
the  old  names,  had  been  governed  by  an  oligarchy 
incredibly  base.  It  merely  meant,  when  it  said  "re- 
public," the  plunder  of  the  provinces  for  the  benefit 
of  the  few,  abject  misery  for  the  many. 

The  Roman  Senate  in  a  full  session  numbered  at 
this  time  between  four  and  five  hundred  present. 
These  were  selected  men — the  very  best.  For  weeks 
before  Caesar's  death  plans  were  being  matured  to 
murder  him.  Of  the  carefully  selected  Senate,  sixty 
men,  the  bravest,  the  boldest,  the  most  capable,  had 
been  deliberately  chosen.  Every  detail  of  the  mur- 
der had  been  discussed,  backward  and  forward.  The 
whole  plan  had  been  elaborated  and  settled:  what 
this  individual  man  was  to  say,  how  and  where  he  was 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

to  Stand,  and  this  other  man,  what  he  was  to  do  and 
when.  The  various  factions  of  the  Senate  were  inti- 
mately and  personally  known  to  each  of  the  sixty — its 
bickerings,  animosities  and  jealousies.  They  knew 
its  utter  lack  of  cohesion,  and  they  knew  also  that 
once  the  master  hand  was  cold  it  would  forthwith 
pass  from  unanimous  servility  to  unanimous  dis- 
cord. 

On  the  fatal  morning,  every  detail  had  been  at- 
tended to.  The  large  band  of  gladiators,  who,  if  need 
be,  were  to  assist,  had  been  assembled  and  were  with- 
in instant  call.  Antony,  whom  Caesar  had  associated 
with  him  as  consul  for  that  year,  was,  as  had  been 
arranged,  detained  in  conversation  by  one  of  the  con- 
spirators, but  Caesar  did  not  come.  Time  dragged 
on.  Not  one  of  the  sixty  had  had  sixty  minutes'  sleep 
the  night  before.  They  were  nervous,  anxious,  trem- 
ulous. Caesar  was  to  start  for  the  Parthian  campaign 
on  the  morrow.  Once  with  the  army,  he  would  be 
safe,  to  come  back  with  fresh  victories,  more  glori- 
ous, more  unassailable  than  ever.  Now  was  the  last 
chance,  for  the  sixty  knew  each  other  and  knew  that 
during  the  next  few  months  the  plot  would  surely 
be  betrayed.  They  all  were  distinctly  frightened. 
What  was  to  be  done?  One  of  the  many  close, 
obliged,  personal  friends  of  Caesar  among  them  was 
deputed  to  go  to  his  house  and  fetch  him  to  the 
slaughter.  Yes,  'tis  ever  dangerous  to  take  a  bone 
from  a  cur.  He  went,  found  him  indisposed  and  his 
attendance  at  the  Senate  House  given  up,  rallied  him, 
encouraged  him,  and  having  gotten  him  into  good 
spirits  brought  him  to  another  Aceldama,  another 

D363 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

field  of  blood/  The  band  fell  on  him.  Armed  only 
with  a  stylus,  he  fought  them  all  to  the  last  and  fell 
covered  with  jagged  wounds.^ 

The  Senate  House  vomited  forth  those  in  atten- 
dance who  had  not  linked  up  with  the  plot.  In  the 
scurrying  crowd  senatorial  dignity  was  forgotten. 
What  did  the  sixty  noblest  Romans  do?  They 
wrapped  their  togas  around  their  left  arms  and  with 
their  drawn  swords  in  their  hands  walked  out  in 
front  of  the  Senate  House.  But  the  news  had  already 
preceded  them.  All  was  in  wild  tumult.  Nobody 
paid  any  attention  to  their  theatrical  attitudinizing. 
They  became  fearfully  alarmed  at  the  uproar  and 
rushed  back  into  the  Senate  House.  That  was  all. 
It  does  not  seem  credible,  it  does  not  seem  possible. 
Absolutely  ignorant  of  government  in  every  detail, 
they  could  plan  a  murder,  but  beyond  that  their  im- 
becility could  not  go.  They  had  come  to  the  end  of 
their  intellectual  tether.  The  sixty  sifted  and  chosen 
men  of  Rome  had  never  considered  what  they  would 
do  next.  They  were  not  only  in  a  state  of  agitation 
which  at  that  time  precluded  thought,  but  never  had 
had  the  brains  to  determine  the  few  necessary  steps 
to  seize,  on  behalf  of  the  government  they  proposed 
to  install,  the  power  of  the  government  they  had 
brutally  destroyed.    They  were  helpless  as  babies. 

There  stood  the  official  residence  of  Caesar.  It 
was  only  a  few  blocks  off.  In  it  was  a  large  amount 
of  ready  money.  In  it  were  the  books  and  papers  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  continue  the  public  service  and 
the  whole  working  governmental  staff  of  slaves  and 

1  Acts  I,  19.  2^  B.C. 

CI37] 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

freedmen.  There,  in  another  building  close  by,  was 
the  public  treasure  chest,  and  swirling  in  and  about 
these  buildings  was  the  whole  city  in  wild  uproar. 
Did  they  immediately  detail  the  large  band  of  armed 
gladiators  under  their  orders  and  concealed  close  by 
to  protect  the  public  property?  Did  they  take  any 
steps  whatever  to  protect  it,  or  to  insure  for  the  Sen- 
ate the  immediate  control  of  affairs?  No,  not  a 
single  thing.  They  had  unloosed  the  fateful  cord 
which  bound  the  sack  of  the  storm  winds  and  cow- 
ered before  the  tempest  which  issued  forth.  For 
weeks  they  had  studied  the  situation — it  was  no  sud- 
den matter — and  for  weeks  the  thought  had  never 
entered  any  one  of  their  silly  heads  to  make  some 
provision  against  the  consequences  of  their  dreadful 
deed. 

It  is  useless  to  say  that  in  striking  down  the  dic- 
tator they  had  restored  the  republic.  Each  one  of 
them  knew  better.  Each  one  of  them  knew  that 
many  steps  had  to  be  taken  to  give  effect  to  their  rash 
act.  To  say  that  they  lacked  mental  capacity  is  to 
bring  a  charge  which  cannot  be  refuted.  To  say  that 
no  one  of  them  had  any  idea  of  the  practical  work- 
ings of  governmental  machinery  is  to  state  the  truth, 
not  to  excuse,  but  to  confound  them.  Nor  did  any- 
thing which  any  of  them  did  afterwards  justify  in 
the  slightest  degree  the  imputation  of  intelligence  to 
any  one  of  them;  and  as  the  weeks  dragged  on,  An- 
tony, who  had  been  accused,  and  justly,  of  almost 
everything  but  never  of  being  overburdened  with 
brains,  played  his  cards  against  the  whole  Senate 
and  won. 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

The  moment  the  uproar  broke  out  he  had  walked 
home.  There  is  no  question  but  that  he  was  a  brave 
man,  and  until  his  dreadful  excesses  unnerved  him 
remained  so.  He  instantly  compelled  himself  to 
think,  and  a  little  later  went  to  the  official  residence, 
and  received  from  Calpurnia  one  hundred  million 
sesterces  in  ready  money  and  Caesar's  papers.  The 
weeks  dragged  on — nothing  was  settled.  Everything 
was  in  a  state  of  tumult,  and  in  the  midst  of  se- 
dition and  disorganization  the  Senate  took  its  usual 
summer  vacation.  It  is  not  possible  to  exaggerate  the 
mental  imbecility  of  the  governing  class. 

Octavius  was  a  boy  of  less  than  nineteen  years  of 
age,  sickly,  pampered,  but,  curiously  enough,  pre- 
maturely bright.  His  little  lamp  dimmed  later,  but 
at  this  time  threw  enough  light  to  enable  him  to  see 
his  way  to  ultimate  dominion.  Octavius  had  come  to 
Rome.  Antony  was  more  than  cool  to  him.  Oc- 
tavius, contrary  to  his  friends'  advice,  had  the  back- 
bone to  raise  a  small  army.  He  was  Caesar's  heir  and 
found  Caesar's  name  a  tower  of  strength.  The  ghost 
did  not  wait  to  meet  the  sixty  at  Philippi.  The  sixty 
had  already  faded  away. 

Cicero  had  almost  as  many  minds  as  the  con- 
spirators numbered.  He  talked  and  wrote,  and  wrote 
and  talked— futilities.  Atticus,  perhaps  the  ablest  of 
them  all  from  one  point  of  view,  lent  money  to  every 
side,  even  to  Fulvia.  Antony  also  raised  an  army. 
Cassius  fled  to  the  East  and  raised  an  army.  Brutus 
fled  to  Greece.  Some  young  enthusiastic  friends  of 
his  urged  him  to  seize  a  large  sum  of  money  in 
transit  westward. 

D39!] 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

Brutus  in  reality  was  an  empty  drum.  He  posed. 
He  had  a  well  developed  taste  for  usury.  Four  per 
cent,  a  month  was  his  delight.  Owing  to  his  sena- 
torial rank  and  the  law,  this  business  had  to  be  con- 
ducted under  the  rose.  His  agent  a  few  years  be- 
fore, to  compel  settlement  of  a  usurious  claim  of  this 
character,  locked  up  a  finance  committee  until  several 
died,  but  could  not  collect.  Brutus  then  came  for- 
ward to  secure  confidentially  Cicero's  help,  and  the 
rose  withered.  Cicero  gave  him  eloquent  advice  and 
adjourned  his  case.  Brutus  failed  to  find  in  philoso- 
phy, about  which  he  talked  a  good  deal,  but  which  he 
did  not  understand,  the  consolation  he  would  have 
derived  from  sesterces. 

Caesar  had  given  him  his  life,  made  him  what  he 
was,  had  just  given  his  mother  a  large  estate,  and 
appointed  him  in  his  will  guardian  of  a  hoped- 
for  child.  Francis  Bacon  had  intelligence  enough 
partly  to  understand  that  he  was  the  "meanest  of 
mankind."  Brutus  enters  into  competition  with  him 
unhampered  by  any  such  intelligence.  Brutus  never 
could  make  up  the  little  mind  he  had.  He  needed 
constant  prodding.  His  young  friends  prodded  him 
with  good  will  until  Brutus  stole  the  money,  and 
then  continued  their  pressure  until  Brutus  with  the 
stolen  money  raised  an  army.  He  moved  it  about, 
hither  and  yon,  with  trifling  results.  Lepidus  was 
sent  by  the  Senate  to  Gaul  to  command  that  province 
and  that  army  and  to  hold  all  for  the  Senate.  The 
world  bristled  with  armies.  Cadmus  would  have 
been  confounded.  Dragons'  teeth  had  been  sown 
broadcast. 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

Antony  attacked  Octavius.  Octavius  for  the  only 
time  fought,  and  fought  well.  At  this  particular 
moment  he  fought  on  behalf  of  the  Senate.  Antony 
fought  on  behalf  of  Antony.  Threatened  by  fresh 
forces,  Antony  broke  away  from  Octavius,  by  won- 
derful marching  threw  off  pursuit,  and  faced  Lepi- 
dus  in  Gaul.  A  comedy  was  enacted,  and  Antony, 
conjuring  with  Caesar's  name  (the  ghost  still 
walked),  brought  about  a  union  between  the  soldiers 
to  which  Lepidus  gladly  conformed.  Between  them 
and  Rome  stood  Octavius.  Lepidus  negotiated  an 
alliance  with  him.  The  main  difficulty  lay  in  ar- 
ranging a  personal  interview  between  Antony  and 
Octavius.  As  the  result  of  tedious  conferences  the 
two  armies  were  brought  to  face  each  other  on  either 
side  of  a  small  stream,  in  the  centre  of  which  was  an 
island.  Each  arm  of  the  stream  was  bridged.  An- 
tony advanced — Octavius  advanced — they  met  on  the 
island.  In  full  view  of  their  respective  troops  they 
searched  each  other  for  concealed  weapons,  and  then 
conferred.  "Punic  faith"  was  no  longer  an  expression 
of  utter  contempt.     "Roman  faith"  was  substituted. 

Vast  as  were  the  numbers  of  their  armies,  their 
promises  of  pay  and  reward  were  still  more  vast.^ 
In  their  utter  ignorance  of  finance  they  knew  of  but 
one  method  of  securing  money — confiscation  through 
slaughter.  Nor  did  they  even  understand  that  num- 
bers of  great  estates  suddenly  thrown  on  the  market 
would  bring  little  or  nothing,  and  were  nonplussed 
to  find  this  the  result.  A  Roman  always  plundered. 
He  never  could  evolve  (and  he  kept  at  it  for  over  two 

1  43  B.  c. 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

thousand  years)  a  scientific  method  of  taxation.  As 
mentality  dwindled  in  the  Roman  Empire  the  system 
of  taxation  became  more  and  more  infamous.  In 
point  of  fact,  at  any  time  in  any  community  the 
method  of  taxation  indicates  the  amount  of  collective 
mental  capacity.  Applying  this  test,  the  method  of 
raising  money  pursued  by  Antony  and  Octavius, 
Brutus  and  Cassius  shows  among  them  all  a  lack  of 
mental  ability  which  is  appalling.  Cassius  and  Bru- 
tus decreed  ten  years'  taxes,  payable  in  two  years.  It 
meant  that  practically  the  whole  accumulated  capital 
of  the  world  was  to  be  collected  and  paid  in  in  that 
brief  space.  Antony,  following  close  on  their  heels, 
decreed  a  further  ten  years'  taxes  of  the  world  he 
absolutely  owned,  payable  also  in  two  years.  It  was 
not  folly — it  rose  to  the  height  of  criminal  lunacy; 
and  now,  at  Rome,  whither  he  and  Octavius  imme- 
diately repaired,  their  acts  were  those  of  madmen. 
Indeed,  at  that  time  many  thought  Octavius  had  gone 
mad.  As  for  Antony,  he  never  had  had  any  rating 
as  a  well-balanced  man. 

The  accumulated  punishment  of  centuries  of  Ro- 
man crime  found  its  culmination.  Marius  and  Sulla, 
vanward  clouds  of  evil  days,  had  spent  their  malice, 
and  now  the  sullen  rear  was  with  its  stored  lightnings 
laboring  up.  At  once  murder  and  the  flight  from 
Rome  began,  but  flight  was  as  dangerous  as  tarrying. 
All  the  roads  were  crowded  with  soldiers  who  scented 
the  carrion  from  afar.  For  them  no  proscription 
lists  were  needed.  The  fact  of  flight  was  proof  posi- 
tive. The  body  lay  by  the  wayside — the  head  was 
instantly  returning  in  a  sack  to  Rome.     It  was  duly 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

listed  and  the  reward  paid.  Wives  easily  obtained 
eternal  divorce,  senators  in  wild  entreaty  flung  them- 
selves Weeping  down  before  their  slaves,  or,  disguised 
as  slaves,  hid  in  sewers.  Among  others,  a  story  to  this 
effect  is  told: 

A  daughter,  obedient  to  her  father's  summons,  en- 
ters the  room  and  pauses  in  frozen  horror.  There 
stands  her  father.  She  had  left  him  shortly  before, 
hale  and  vigorous.  Now  shrunken  and  tremulous,  he 
wavers  upon  his  feet,  an  old,  old  man.  Beside  him 
stands  a  ruffian  with  a  drawn  sword.  Her  father's  face 
is  ashen,  his  lips  bloodless,  and  through  their  cloudy 
agony  his  eyes  burn  upon  her.  Twice  he  essays  to 
speak,  then  passing  over  his  dry  lips  his  dry  tongue, 
compels  himself  to  utterance.  The  words  come  forth 
in  a  sibilant  whisper:  "My  daughter,  make  no  claim 
whatever  upon  my  estate.  Thus  only  canst  thou  save 
thy  life.  I  asked  this  official  for  a  little  pause  that 
I  might  speak  with  thy  brother,  my  son,  for  he  was 
a  close  friend  of  Marcus  Antonius,  and  would  in- 
stantly explain  the  mistake.  He  laughed  and  told  me 
that  it  was  because  my  son,  thy  brother,  had  already 
communed  with  Antonius  that  he  was  here.  Fare- 
well!" 

At  Philippi^  the  four  principal  actors  gathered. 
Neither  the  campaign  which  led  up  to  it  nor  the 
series  of  engagements  which  took  place  showed  any 
generalship  whatever,  and  the  discipline  of  the  troops 
on  both  sides  was  exceedingly  bad.  Antony  did  try 
to  flank  Cassius  by  building  a  road  through  the 
swamp,  and  it  was  to  check  this  that  Cassius  attacked. 

1  42    B.  C. 

[143: 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

Each  took  the  other's  camp.  All  discipline  was  at 
once  thrown  to  the  winds.  The  only  thought  was  pil- 
lage. In  the  confusion  Cassius  was  slain,  and  the 
irresolute  and  incompetent  Brutus  assumed  com- 
mand. He  could  not  control  his  troops,  who  forced 
him  a  little  later  to  give  battle.  He  was  beaten  and 
had  himself  slain.  The  ghost  of  Caesar  walked  no 
more!  Octavius  had  gone  hunting  the  morning  of 
the  battle.  Hearing  the  uproar,  he  hid  himself  in 
the  swamp  till  it  was  well  over.  Caesar's  successor 
a  poltroon! 

In  the  distribution  of  territory  which  followed, 
Antony  gave  Italy  to  Octavius  and  took  the  teem- 
ing East  for  himself.  He  found  it  wrung  dry  by 
previous  exactions.  Octavius'  life  at  Rome  was  a 
stench  in  the  nostrils  of  that  abandoned  capital, 
his  cruelties  earned  him  the  title  of  the  ''execu- 
tioner," his  infamies  surpassed  his  cruelties.  In  his 
campaign  against  Sextus  Pompeius,  the  whole  plan 
as  well  as  the  execution  of  his  attack  on  the  fleet  was 
imbecile.  He  became  terrified — he  fled  to  the  shore. 
His  commander,  unhampered  by  cowardly  incapa- 
city, somewhat  redeemed  the  situation.  Antony  in 
the  East,  a  courageous  fighting  man  trained  under 
Caesar,  conducted  an  unsuccessful  campaign  against 
the  Parthians.  Octavius  made  another  attack  on 
Pompeius,  which  he  conducted  with  stupidity  and 
irresolution.  Suddenly  finding  his  position  some- 
what dangerous,  and  that  he  himself  might  possibly 
be  taken,  he  left  his  army  in  Sicily  and  fled.  But  the 
united  forces  of  Lepidus  and  Octavius  were  too  great 
for  Pompeius,  who  cut  his  way  through  the  fleet  and 

D44II 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

reached  the  East,  where  he  was  slain  by  Antony. 
Octavius  then  won  over  Lepidus'  troops,  deposed 
Lepidus,  whose  office  of  Pontifex  Maximus  probably 
saved  his  life,  and  Lepidus  retired  to  spend  his  ill- 
gotten  gains  in  Rome.  But  two  were  left,  Octavius 
and  Antony.  They  met  at  Actium^  and  Antony, 
unnerved  by  debauchery,  fled  first.  Octavius,  young 
in  years  but  old  in  every  form  of  abhorrent  vice  and 
crime,  irresolute,  craven,  cruel,  stood  forth,  not  by 
force  of  any  real  greatness  in  himself,  but  by  reason 
of  the  fact  that  the  world  he  dominated  was  a  world 
of  mongrels  and  slaves.  The  lassitude  of  exhaustion 
ushered  in  the  vaunted  Pax  Romana,  and  the  rem- 
nants of  Rome  and  her  subject  states,  all  united  at  last 
in  a  common  bond,  a  bond  of  unutterable  misery, 
entered  the  new  era  doomed. 


What  did  Rome  do  for  the  intellectual  betterment 
of  mankind?  In  her  early  days  she  gave  many  splen- 
did examples  of  courage,  fortitude  and  character; 
examples  not  winning  but  nevertheless  commanding; 
examples  marked  by  sturdy  common  sense.  In  her 
whole  career,  however,  she  never  produced  a  single 
man  distinguished  for  purely  intellectual  force.  In 
later  years  she  paraded  her  rich  men  with  tedious  it- 
eration and  tedious  monotony,  and  they  in  turn  os- 
tentatiously and  with  tiresome  sameness  paraded 
their  wealth.  Her  generals  she  worshipped.  In  her 
practical  sordid  life  she  limited  her  desires  to  what 
she  could  touch  and  taste  and  handle,  and  cared  for 

1  31    B.C. 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

only  those  physical  things  which  could  be  obtained 
by  force.  As  for  producing — let  slaves  and  Greeks 
and  Syrians  do  that.  Her  great  and  unique  gift  was 
law.  To  the  cohesion  imparted  by  its  administration 
Finlay  attributes  the  longevity  of  the  Empire. 

Rome's  influence  on  the  world  she  conquered  was, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  study,  knowledge,  mental 
improvement,  a  hindrance,  not  a  help.  She  did  not 
elevate,  she  abased.  This  course  she  remorselessly 
followed  for  two  centuries.  Nearly  every  one  of  the 
Eastern  courts  upon  which  she  laid  her  heavy  hand 
was  a  centre  of  Hellenistic  culture.  Nearly  every 
Eastern  city  nurtured  and  honored  Greek  tradition. 
One  after  another,  these  sacred  fires  were  extin-. 
guished.  "The  dominion  of  the  Romans  degraded 
the  human  species."^  The  loss  to  the  intellectual  life 
of  mankind  is  not  to  be  reckoned. 

From  the  physical  point  of  view — the  well-being 
of  the  subject  people — respect  for  individuality  of 
race  or  even  mere  nationality  did  not  exist.  On  the 
contrary,  the  very  land  of  the  victims  belonged  to  the 
Roman  people.  The  inhabitants,  if  any  survived,  re- 
mained on  it  merely  as  tenants  by  sufferance — little 
better  in  Rome's  eyes  than  cattle.  Slavery  became 
with  her  not  an  institution  but  an  obsession.  All 
round  her  Mediterranean  Lake  she  gathered  up 
tribes  and  peoples  as  an  experienced  card-player 
gathers  up  the  scattered  cards,  and  as  he  would 
shuffle  the  pack,  so  she  intermixed  kindreds  and 
colors,  the  knave  cheek  by  jowl  with  the  king,  black, 
white  and  red  in  inextricable  confusion;  and  then, 

1  Robertson's  Charles  V,  §  i,  p.  5. 

L1463 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

taking  this  mass  of  human  beings,  fashioned,  we  arc 
taught,  in  the  likeness  of  the  one  eternal  God,  she 
ground  them  to  the  dust  and  made  them  beasts,  and 
tossing  them  into  one  great  cauldron,  her  much 
vaunted  melting  pot,  left  them  to  seethe  and  simmer, 
and  with  each  succeeding  generation  to  produce  a 
worse  hybridism  than  that  of  the  generation  which 
preceded. 

Years  and  years  before  this  time  Mahaffy  notes 
that  Alexandria  had  become  a  city  of  mongrels, 
while  Ferrero  notes  blood  contamination  in  Italy  as 
early  as  170  B.C.  It  must  be  remarked  that  these  are 
entirely  impartial  statements.  Neither  of  these  au- 
thors had  principally  in  mind  the  importance  of 
race  purity.    They  merely  state  the  historic  fact. 

Tacitus  ^  says  that  in  his  time  the  Roman  people 
were  almost  entirely  freedmen,  which  is  a  distinct 
statement  to  the  effect  that  they  were  not  Romans. 
Sumner  ^  draws  a  revolting  picture  of  infanticide 
among  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  In  Greece  the  cities 
were  empty  and  the  land  uncultivated.  Plutarch^ 
states  that  the  world  in  general,  and  Greece  espe- 
cially, was  depopulated.  The  whole  country  could 
hardly  put  three  thousand  infantry^  in  the  field — 
Megara  alone  had  sent  that  many  to  face  the  Persians 
at  Plataea.^ 

All  through  Pausanias  runs  the  long  list  of  ruined 
and  deserted  cities,  ruined  and  deserted  villages, 
ruined  and  roofless  temples.  The  greater  part  of 
Thebes  lay  empty;  a  town  of  Euboea  was,  within  the 

1  Tacitus,  Annals,  XIV,  42.  "*  Frazer,  Pausanias,  Introduction. 

2  Folkways,  §  109.  ^  479  b.  c. 

3  C.  96  A.  D. 

[1473 


THIRD 

THE  ROMANS 

walls,  a  farm,  the  gymnasium  a  fruitful  field,  sheep 
were  grazing  in  the  market-place.  The  site  of  one 
famous  city  was  a  vineyard,  and  this  in  the  golden 
age^  of  Hadrian,  Antoninus,  and  Marcus  Aurelius. 
From  the  death  of  Alexander  for  nearly  a  thousand 
years,  humanity  steadily  sank,^  and  while  there  ever 
remained  an  interval  between  the  ruler  and  the  ruled, 
the  interval  constantly  grew  less.  Intelligence  dwin- 
dled. Capacity  among  those  in  high  places  turned  to 
cunning,  vigor  to  effeminacy,  force  to  fraud,  until 
ultimately,  in  the  universal  subsidence,  women,  eu- 
nuchs and  ecclesiastics  ruled  the  world — a  world  all 
sunk  in  common  degradation.  The  Romans  passed 
away,  their  language  remained;  the  Greeks  passed 
away,  their  language  remained;  and  it  was  the  so- 
called  Greek  Empire  (which  was  not  Greek)  of  By- 
zantium, not  the  Roman,  which  the  Crusaders  rav- 
aged and  later  the  Turks  overthrew. 

The  Roman  people,^  homogeneous,  united,  unceas- 
ingly striving,  grew  and  developed  as  naturally  as  a 
plant.  When  they  reached  that  point  in  growth  and 
political  training  which  made  a  republic  possible, 
the  magistrate  was  substituted  for  the  king.^  But  con- 
stant wars  continually  swept  ofif  the  strongest  and 
sturdiest,  and  the  Hannibalic^  convulsion,  destroy- 
ing as  it  did  men  and  institutions,  cut  the  race  to  the 
quick.  They  retrograded,  and  when  capacity  dwin- 
dled so  that  the  complex  of  free  institutions  became 
too  difficult  the  king  naturally  reappeared. 

1  C.  170  A.  D.  2  Oman,  Hist.  Eng.,  Vol.  I,  p.  318;  see  p.  332. 

3  C.  750  B.  c.  *  509  B.  c.  ^  C.  200  B.  c. 


THIRD 
THE  ROMANS 

The  cycle  of  five  hundred  years  which  we  have 
been  considering  is  accomplished/  Rome's  early 
kings  were  high  priests  and  were  divine.  For  five 
hundred  years,  Rome,  untrammelled,  wrought  out 
her  own  destiny,  and  once  again  Rome's  king,  under 
the  new  name,  Caesar,  is  priest  and  is  divine.^  The 
cycle  is  complete. 


EIGHTH  PERIOD 

The  Year  One  to  500  a.d. 

Another  great  cycle  of  five  hundred  years,  and 
Rome,  having  been  plundered  by  enemies  from  the 
Carthage  she  so  hideously  destroyed,  fell,  and  with 
her  fell  the  Western  Empire.^  A  few  years  later  and 
the  miserable  inhabitants,  shrunk  to  trifling  numbers 
and  still  further  reduced  to  a  mere  handful  (some  say 
twenty-five  hundred,  some  say  five  hundred)  by  fam- 
ine and  pestilence,  were  turned  out  into  the  Cam- 
pania by  Totila/  For  forty  days  Rome  was  empty, 
void,  and  then  slowly  there  drifted  in  the  dregs  of 
humanity,  the  results  of  Rome's  melting  pot.  They 
moved  about,  spectres  and  shadows  among  mighty 
monuments  of  whose  use  they  were  ignorant,  whose 
builders'  names  they  did  not  know,  to  whom  they 
were  no  kin,  barbarous,  witless,  with  even  the  tradi- 
tions of  aforetime  greatness  lost.  To  what  cause  may 
this  and  the  continuing  downfall  of  humanity  during 

1  500  B.  c.  to  the  year  one.  -  Pontifex  maximus,  Divus. 

3  Odoacer,  476  a.d.;  Theodoric,  493  a.d. 

4C.  546  A.  D.;  and  see  Gregorovius,  Vol.  I,  Book  II,  Chapter  V,  p.  446; 
see  p.  431. 

1:149] 


EIGHTH  PERIOD 

The  Year  One  to  500  a.d. 

centuries  be  traced?  Clearly  to  one — mongrelism. 
To  gloze  the  truth  the  misguided  humanitarian  in- 
sists on  using  the  term  "melting  pot."  Tear  from  the 
phrase  the  softening  metaphor  and  we  recognize 
"melting  pot"  in  its  true,  its  unpleasant  form — "mis- 
cegenation." 

"If  a  man  were  called  to  fix  the  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  during  which  the  condition  of  the 
human  race  was  most  happy  and  prosperous  ^  he 
would  without  hesitation  name  that  which  elapsed 
from  the  death  of  Domitian  -  to  the  accession  of 
Commodus."^  Perhaps  the  best  of  the  four  em- 
perors to  whom  Gibbon  refers  were  Trajan^  and 
Hadrian.^  Both  were  foreigners — Spaniards.  Four 
good  men,  selected  from  fifteen  hundred  years  of  em- 
perors, and  two  of  them  foreign  to  Rome!  But  note 
Gibbon's  comment:  "Such  princes  deserved  the 
honor  of  restoring  the  Republic,  had  the  Romans  of 
their  days  been  capable  of  enjoying  a  rational  free- 
dom," and  adds:  "They  [the  princes]  must  often 
have  recollected  the  instability  of  a  happiness  which 
depended  on  the  character  of  a  single  man,"  and 
refers  Roman  worthlessness  directly  to  "corruption." 

The  poet  tells  us  the  time  has  been  that,  when  the 
brains  were  out,  the  man  would  die.  In  Rome  men 
still  lived.  The  brains  were  not  entirely  out,  but  so 
shrunken  and  enfeebled  that  all  depended  upon  the 
character  and  energy  of  a  "single  man."  Nor  were 
there  many  of  the  old  blood  left.  In  passing  they 
bequeathed  a  tainted  inheritance.    At  the  time^  of  the 

1  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  Vol.  I,  Chapter  III,  p.  80.  ~  96  A.  D. 

•'  180  A.  D.         4  ^g  A.  D.  to   1 17   A.  D.         •'  1 17    A.  D.  tO   138   A.  D.         ^  C.  260  A.  D. 

[ISO] 


EIGHTH  PERIOD 
The  Year  One  to  500  a.d. 

thirty  tyrants  all  the  great  families  of  Rome  were  ex- 
tinct save  one,  the  Calpurnian.^  In  1845  the  Irish 
nation  was  dependent  for  food  upon  a  single  root,  the 
potato.  Attention  to  this  dangerous  condition  had 
been  publicly  called  in  parliament  more  than  twenty 
years  before.  The  blight  occurred.  We  all  know  the 
dreadful  result.  The  witless  world  may  have  been 
happy  under  a  Trajan,  a  sole  and  single  reliance,  but 
this  happiness  was  transitory.  Two  centuries  pass, 
and  now  listen  to  the  words  of  Robertson,  the  great 
historian:^  "If  a  man  were  called  upon  to  fix  upon  a 
period  in  the  history  of  the  world  during  which  the 
condition  of  the  human  race  was  most  calamitous  and 
afflicted,  he  would  without  hesitation  name  that 
which  elapsed  from  the  death  of  Theodosius  the 
Great^  to  the  establishment  of  the  Lombards  in 
Italy." 

It  may  be  that  this  was  the  nadir  of  suffering, 
but  until  the  year  eight  hundred  the  frightful  con- 
ditions showed  little  improvement,  and  so  far  as 
intellect  was  concerned  men  for  the  great  part  had  be- 
come mere  brutes,  beasts  of  the  field,  incapable  alike 
of  thought  or  of  action,  indifferent  as  to  whether  they 
were  ruled  by  Byzantine  or  Roman,  German  or  Van- 
dal— indeed,  often  preferring  the  Northern  to  the 
Southern  rule,  because  while  under  both  the  misery 
was  intense,  it  may  have  been  somewhat  mitigated  by 
the  new  oppressor — and  that  the  Northern  invaders 
were  all  equally  cruel  is  not  true.^  For  a  long  time  be- 
fore 500  A.D.,  centuries  indeed,  barbarians,  so  called, 

1  Gibbon,  Chapter  X.  "  395  A.D.  to  571  a.d.,  176  years. 

2  Robertson's  Charles  V,  §  i.  *  Note. 

[>50 


EIGHTH  PERIOD 

The  Year  One  to  500  a.d. 

had  been  drifting  into  the  Empire.  As  men,  nearly 
all  of  them  were  better  than  their  contemporary  so- 
called  Romans,  and  in  Tacitus'  account  of  the  Ger- 
mans, his  Romans  suffer  by  comparison.  Dill  draws 
a  not  unpleasing  picture  of  the  relations  of  the 
Northern  invaders  with  the  provincials  in  Gaul,  but 
among  the  many  inroads  there  was  frequent  ruth- 
lessness. 

Of  the  havoc  and  laying  waste,  the  gradual  change 
of  once  fertile  regions  to  desolations,  every  author 
speaks.  As  the  legions  were  defeated  or  disinte- 
grated or  withdrawn  the  lamentations  of  the  miser- 
able inhabitants,  the  wails  of  anguish,  pierced  even 
the  insensible  walls  of  Ravenna.  One  cry  at  least 
has  come  to  us  from  that  far-off  wretchedness:  ^  "We 
know  not  which  way  to  turn  us.  The  barbarians 
drive  us  to  the  sea,  and  the  sea  forces  us  back  on  the 
barbarians ;  between  which  we  have  only  the  choice 
of  two  deaths,  either  to  be  swallowed  up  by  the 
waves,  or  to  be  slain  by  the  sword." ^  The  "groans  of 
the  Britons"  were  the  groans  of  a  helpless  people. 
Five  hundred  years  before,  these  same  people  with 
splendid  courage  had  resisted  Caesar,  and  now  they 
were  helpless  against  invaders  of  such  small  re- 
sources as  the  Picts  and  Scots.^ 

To  dwell  upon  this  phase  of  a  situation  which  is 
well  known  to  all  is  unnecessary.  It  is  only  needful 
here  for  us  to  stress  the  fact,  and  to  note  that  the  inva- 
sions themselves  were  the  result,  not  the  cause  of 
Rome's  feebleness.    The  fundamental  cause  of  that 

^  Green,  History  of  English  People,  Vol.  I,  p.  21.  ^  \.l>.  446. 

8  "The  Social  Degradation  Rome  brought  on  Britain."  Green,  History 
of  English  People,  Vol.  I,  p.  88. 

D523 


EIGHTH  PERIOD 
The  Year  One  to  500  a.d. 

was  mongrelism.^  No  state  can  be  erected  on  such  a 
foundation.  It  is  mere  shifting  sand.  It  lacks  perma- 
nence. It  cannot  reproduce  true  to  type,  for  there  is 
no  type.  It  is  continually  evoking  from  the  past 
baleful  qualities.  The  immemorial  curse  of  Reuben 
is  upon  it:  "unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt  not  excel." ^ 
It  persists  in  evil  because  it  lacks  capacity  for  better 
choice  and  at  the  same  time  lacks  persistence  to  ad- 
here to  chance  betterment. 

This,  of  course,  was  the  fundamental  cause  of 
Rome's  collapse,  but  running  with  it  hand  in  hand 
and  springing  from  itwere  other  causes,  handmaidens 
to  the  first.  Slavery  has  been  mentioned.  Next  to 
this  was  probably  Rome's  dreadful  system  of  taxa- 
tion. By  the  year  500  this  was  well  on  its  way  to  the 
accomplishment  of  its  perfect  work.  For  its  full 
fruition,  however,  it  still  took  several  hundred  years. 
The  capital  of  the  world  slowly  gathered  during  gen- 
erations was  being  recklessly  trenched  upon.  Eccle- 
siastical broils  and  raids  by  the  barbarians  destroyed 
fixed  property.  The  taxes  carried  off  all  but  the  bare 
necessities  of  life  from  a  great  part  of  the  population. 
The  surplus  which  rebuilt  farmsteads  and  replaced 
slain  livestock  or  repaired  piers,  improved  harbors, 
and  kept  up  the  public  buildings,  roads  and  bridges, 
was  diverted  to  pay  the  personal  bills  of  the  Imperial 
Court.  Communication  became  difficult,  often  im- 
possible. An  abundance  at  one  point  could  not  be 
transported   to    relieve   distress   at   another.      Local 

1  old  Roman  and  Greek  populations  had  disappeared;  races  of  half- 
breeds  and  mongrels  were  substituted  for  them.  Draper,  Intellectual 
Development  of  Europe,  Vol.  I,  p.  402. 

2  Genesis,  XLIX,  4. 

[153: 


EIGHTH  PERIOD     . 
The  Year  One  to  500  a.d. 

famine  with  its  consequent  pestilence  stalked  at  noon- 
day. Maladministration  continued  until  ultimately 
it  was  found  necessary  to  appoint  the  richest  men  in 
each  community  tax  collectors  and  make  them  re- 
sponsible for  the  deficit,  thus  reducing  all  to  a  com- 
mon level  of  poverty;  and  then  it  was  that  those 
unfortunate  laws  were  passed  which  fixed  the  shoe- 
maker to  his  bench  and  his  son  after  him,  the  store- 
keeper to  his  counter  and  his  son  after  him,  the  peas- 
ant to  his  plow  and  his  son  after  him,  a  coercion  from 
which  there  was  no  escape.  The  inhabitants  could 
not  take  refuge  in  the  army,  for  such  enlistment  was 
prohibited;  could  not  take  refuge  in  the  monastery — 
thence  they  were  dragged  back.  They  must  pro- 
duce, not  for  themselves  but  for  the  Treasury,  which 
was  above  the  law,  so  that  finally  the  slave  became 
free,  not  by  being  lifted  into  freedom,  but  by  the  vir- 
tual enslavement  of  the  whole  population. 


NINTH  PERIOD 

500  A.D.  TO    1000  A.D. 

It  is  not  possible  for  us  to  conceive  of  a  degrada- 
tion so  abject  that  the  millions  and  millions,  subjects 
of  the  Empire,  should  permit  a  comparatively  few 
individuals  to  subdue  the  very  nature  of  humanity 
and  refashion  men  into  cattle.  Under  the  barbarous 
English  law  of  olden  time  the  traitor's  sons  were 
placed  beneath  the  scaffold  in  order  that  the  drops 
might  fall  upon  them  and  work  "corruption  of 
blood."    Mismating  under  Roman  sway  had  worked 

[154] 


NINTH  PERIOD 

500  A.D.  TO   1000  A.D. 

more  surely,  more  efficiently  and  more  thoroughly 
than  law.  Only  corruption  of  blood  could  have 
made  such  a  state  of  things  possible. 

In  the  awful  downfall,  cannibalism,  which  had 
disappeared  for  so  many  thousand  years  that  not  one 
of  the  great  religions  found  it  necessary  to  forbid  it,^ 
reappears.  Both  Gibbon  and  Finlay  tell  the  tale:  A 
traveller,  stopping  at  an  inn,  narrowly  escapes  mur- 
der at  the  hands  of  two  women  who  keep  it.  Investi- 
gation showed  that  seventeen  of  his  predecessors  had 
been  killed  and  eaten.  It  may  be  barely  possible  that 
this  illustrates  the  truth  of  Darwin's  conclusion — the 
tendency  of  the  hybrid  to  revert,  to  call  up  qualities 
carried  forward  latent  for  long  periods  of  time  and 
suddenly  by  cross-mating  evoked  to  mark  the  un- 
happy victim  as  one  born  out  of  due  time. 

It  is  needless  to  refer  to  human  intelligence.  It 
sank  to  the  level  of  its  brutalized  possessor. 

Such  was  the  situation,  such  the  trend  in  the  realm 
which  still  vaunted  itself  mistress  of  the  world,  when 
another  of  those  remarkable  men  who  had  always 
distinguished  the  deserts  of  Arabia  arose.-  In  oppo- 
sition to  the  idolaters  who  were  his  own  countrymen 
he  preached  the  doctrine  of  the  one  true  God.  After 
a  brief  struggle,  the  disunited  tribes  were  united,  and 
the  desert  whirlwind,  gathering  force  as  it  swept  on, 
smote  the  four  corners  of  the  imperial  edifice.  At 
the  shock  it  shattered  into  dust.  In  an  incredibly 
brief  space  of  time  conquest  spread  east  and  west,  and 

1  Folkways,  §  356,  p.  341. 

2  Mohamet,  Hegira,  622  A.  D. ;  Syria  conquered,  634  A.  D. ;  Persia,  636 
A.D. ;  Jerusalem  taken,  637  a.  D. ;  Egypt  conquered,  641  A.  D. ;  Carthage 
taken,  698  A.  D. ;  North  Africa  subdued,  709  A.  D. ;  Arabs  in  Spain,  711  A.  D, 


NINTH  PERIOD 

500  A.D.  TO   1000  A.D. 

from  Mesopotamia  to  the  mountains  of  Atlas  tlie 
pure  race  exulted  over  the  subjugation  of  the  hybrid 
hordes.  They  were  but  a  handful  at  the  most,  but  in 
such  matters  quality  counts  rather  than  numbers. 

Almost  instantly  the  barbarous  tribesmen  turned  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  the  en- 
lightenment of  Bagdad  and  Cordova,  despised  as  in- 
fidel, may  be  well  contrasted  with  the  ignorance  of 
the  Roman  and  the  effeminate  luxury  and  heartless 
guile  of  the  Byzantine. 

The  Saracen  invasion  of  France^  was  checked 
partly  by  the  whole-souled  resistance  of  the  Northern 
white  race  (in  Spain  the  Northerners  had  been  di- 
vided against  themselves)  and  partly  by  dissensions 
in  the  Arab  ranks.  Musa,  the  conqueror  of  Spain, 
pressing  on  with  the  avowed  object  of  preaching  the 
one  true  God  at  Rome,  was  arrested  at  the  head  of  his 
troops  and  taken  to  Bagdad. 

But  while  armed  invasion  ceased,  the  invasion  of 
ideas  continued.  At  the  time  of  Charlemagne  there 
were  practically  no  books  in  Rome.  None  could  be 
found  for  him  because  the  splendid  libraries  had 
been  destroyed.  In  Byzantium  books  abounded  but 
were  useless  to  the  inert  Byzantine  mind.  With 
difficulty  the  Arabs  gathered  together  Greek  works, 
translated  them,  and  made  brilliant  use  of  them.  To 
the  Byzantine  his  own  Greek  books  were  no  inspira- 
tion. A  large  part  of  classic  learning  comes  to  us 
from  the  Arab,  who  could  and  did  utilize  this  rich 
mine  of  golden  thought  to  build  up  great  schools — 
universities  whose  scholars,  European,  Jew,  Arab, 

1  732  A.D. 


NINTH  PERIOD 

500A.D.  TO  1000  A.D. 

were  ever  looked  upon  askance  as  necromancers  by 
Europe  and  Byzantium  and  were  hated  in  propor- 
tion to  their  eminence.  Charlemagne's  efiforts  to 
educate,  rudimentary  as  they  were,  broke  down. 
Even  with  a  rich  mental  soil,  only  a  little  can  be 
done  for  any  one  generation;  and  when  the  soil  is 
poor,  as  it  is  to-day  among  the  peasants  in  Egypt, 
Russia,  Poland,  and  Southern  Italy,  the  herculean 
task  is  a  labor  of  generations.  But  the  Northern 
blood  and  brain  and  brawn  could  not  be  repressed, 
and  more  and  more  the  individual  sought  enlighten- 
ment. Slowly,  to  the  few  knowledge  came,  and 
slowly  spread  in  the  teeth  of  bitter  hostility.  "I 
could  have  done  more  for  humanity,"  repined  that  in- 
tellectual giant  Roger  Bacon,^   "but  for  its  igno- 


TENTH  PERIOD 

1000  A.D.  TO   1500  A.D. 

The  one  great  fact  which  marks  the  millennium  is 
the  cessation  of  Northern  migration.^  In  a  way,  it  is 
to  us  the  most  important  of  all  historic  facts.  Many 
scholars  considered  the  Sumerians,  who  brought  the 
dawn  of  civilization  to  Mesopotamia,  of  Northern 
extraction.  Since  then  almost  all  European  im- 
provement has  followed  in  the  wake  of  Northern  set- 
tlement. The  flux  and  flow  of  the  North  began 
before  history  and  never  ceased  till  the  year  one  thou- 
sand, at  which  time  the  various  tribes  are  found 

1  C.  1280  A.D.  2  Oman,  Hist.  England,  Vol.  I,  p.  11. 


TENTH  PERIOD 

1000  A. D.  TO  1500  A. D.      • 

settled  in  their  present  abodes,  slowly  developing  na- 
tional speech  and  national  sentiment  and  gradually 
crystallizing  within  national  boundaries.  Nor  does  a 
fresh  movement  of  large  proportions  begin  for  five 
hundred  years,^  when  the  new  continent  calls  forth 
fresh  adventurers  to  fresh  conquest. 

Although  great  migratory  movements  ceased  with 
the  millennium,  Europe  was  far  from  tranquil. 
Every  man's  hand  was  against  his  neighbor.  Wars 
and  broils  were  constant  and  on  this  very  account  men 
became  of  some  consequence,  reproduction  was  some- 
what encouraged,  and  population,  which  had  been 
steadily  diminishing,  began  to  increase.  The  feudal 
system  needed  soldiers  and  met  its  own  needs,  not  by 
importing  slaves,  but  by  breeding  its  own  men,  thus 
to  a  great  extent  preserving  race  purity.  The  won- 
derful result  is  proof  of  the  contention  of  this  thesis, 
because  wherever  the  pure  Northern  blood  effected 
permanent  settlement  within  the  Roman  Empire, 
there  and  there  alone  within  those  boundaries  has  the 
improvement  we  call  our  own  civilization  taken 
place.  Spain,  Northern  Italy,  France,  England  were 
all  within  the  Empire,  were  all  permanently  settled, 
and  no  other  portion  of  Roman  territory  can  even  at 
this  late  day  be  compared  with  them.  Furthermore, 
the  same  race  in  Germany,  Denmark,  Belgium,  Hol- 
land, Norway  and  Sweden  has  shared  in  the  great 
forward  movement,  and,  combined  with  the  powers 
named  before,  control  the  world — the  modern  world, 
which  takes  its  whole  impetus  from  their  initiative, 
its  whole  movement  from  their  impulse. 

1  1492  A.  D. 


TENTH  PERIOD 

1000  A. D.  TO   1500  A. D. 

But  the  great  reservoir  is  exhausted.  No  fresh 
hordes  linger  upon  our  frontiers.  Either  we  must 
build  up  from  our  own  resources,  either  we  must  con- 
serve our  own  race  power,  either  we  must  face  the 
facts  and  guard  the  purity  of  our  stock  with  de- 
liberate determination,  or  we  shall  repeat  history  and 
invoke  calamity.  Upon  ourselves  alone  can  we  rely, 
upon  our  own  intelligence,  which  must  convince 
judgment  and  inform  heart  and  understanding.  No 
statute  that  lacks  enthusiastic  support  can  help  us — no 
political  palliatives  will  be  of  any  effect.  The  same 
splendid  patriotism  which  has  led  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  our  men  to  face  death  will  lead  them  gladly 
to  face  life — continuing  American  life  for  them  and 
theirs.  But  this  must  be  based  on  knowledge  and  on 
reason. 


CONCLUSION 

Would  it  not  be  wise  for  us  to  consider  carefully 
our  country's  present  situation?  Events  have  oc- 
curred which  would  have  seemed  to  our  forefathers 
impossible.  Doctrines  have  been  widely  preached 
subversive  of  their  institutions,  and  this  has  been  ac- 
complished by  methods  too  contemptible  and  too 
base  to  be  recited  here.  Americans  of  the  old  stock 
have  still  left  some  rights,  are  still  entitled  to  some 
consideration,  and  failing  to  receive  it,  still  hold  in 
their  hands  the  power  to  enforce  respect  and  obe- 
dience to  the  institutions  they  love.  Never  yet  have 
they  failed  to  carry  any  great  cause  which  they  have 

D59l 


CONCLUSION 

espoused.  The  old  American  blood  once  roused  can 
still  be  counted  upon  absolutely.  How  many  of  us 
are  there  at  this  moment  of  that  grand  old  stock? 
How  many  are  there  who  can  trace  their  descent  on 
both  sides  to  Colonial  days,  or  let  us  say  the  period 
which  is  commonly  taken  in  considering  the  question 
— the  year  1800?  So  nearly  as  can  be  ascertained 
from  the  census,  for  at  first  the  census  was  not  taken 
in  a  scientific  manner,  there  are  over  forty  millions,  a 
number  which,  acting  in  concert,  still  controls  af- 
fairs. It  was  not  the  Russian,  nor  the  Pole,  nor  any 
other  foreign  element  who,  roused  by  infamous  cru- 
elty, swept  the  country  into  the  Spanish  War.  It  was 
not  the  Russian,  nor  the  Pole,  nor  any  other  foreign 
strain  who  swept  the  country  into  this  last  war — it 
was  the  old  American  stock  which  has  ever  stood  for 
right  and  justice.  And  what  did  the  careful  exami- 
nation necessitated  by  our  recent  arming  disclose? 
Was  all  well  with  us?  Can  we  go  back  to  our  afore- 
time indifiference  and  self-satisfaction,  or  should  we 
arouse  and  stand  alert? 

If  we  knew  that  nearly  one  man  in  every  ten  we  cas- 
ually meet  on  the  street  could  not  read  or  write  Eng- 
lish ;  Mf  we  knew  that  seven  millions  over  ten  years  of 
age  could  not  read  or  write  at  all ;  if  we  knew  that 
3,000,000  farmers  could  not  read  the  government  cir- 
culars urging  them  to  increase  food  production  dur- 
ing the  war,  nor  read  the  Liberty  Loan  appeals ;  if  we 
knew  that  400,000  of  the  1,600,000  conscripts  had  to 
be  taught  the  meaning  of  the  simple  words  of  mili- 
tary command,  how  to  sign  payrolls,  which  was  the 

1  Secretary  Lane  before  Senate  Committee  on  Education  and  Labor,  1919. 

[:i6o] 


CONCLUSION 

left  foot,  would  we  be  pleased  and  content?  Yet  such 
are  the  dreadful  facts.    It  seems  incredible! 

Fortunately  for  us,  foreigners  seem  to  be  begin- 
ning to  look  upon  American  citizenship  with  indif- 
ference or  scorn.  The  report  from  over  a  hundred 
business  firms  shows  that  two-thirds  of  their  foreign- 
born  laborers  had  not  even  taken  out  their  so-called 
first  papers ;  and  still  more  fortunate  for  us  is  the  dis- 
closure of  the  fact  that  the  more  undesirable,  the 
greater  their  aversion  to  becoming  our  fellow  citi- 
zens. Nearly  all  the  Mexicans  and  members  of  four 
other  nationalities,  lesser  breeds  without  the  law,  re- 
fuse it.^ 

Benighted  Americans  insist  that  these  people 
should  be  forced  into  becoming  citizens  as  one  would 
drive  sheep  into  a  pen,  or  as  the  Alsatians  were 
forced  to  become  Germans.  They  insist  that  such 
people  must  be  compelled  to  love  America,  for,  of 
course,  failing  that  love,  the  fundamental  basis  of  pa- 
triotic citizenship  is  wanting,  and  if  they  cannot  be 
compelled  to  love  America,  the  alternative  must  be 
presented  to  them  of  deportation,  that  is  to  say, 
banishment.  Now,  banishment  has  from  time  imme- 
morial always  been  one  of  the  most  terrible  of  all 
punishments — a  worse  punishment  than  temporary 
imprisonment.  We  who  love  our  country  and  are 
proud  that  we  are  Americans  are  inclined  to  resent 
the  suggestion  that  our  citizenship  shall  be  placed  be- 
fore an  unwilling  Mexican  in  a  worse  light  than  a 
State's  prison  sentence. 

Nor  can  we  stop  here.    We  must  also  consider  the 

1  Secretary  Lane. 


CONCLUSION 

claims  advanced  by  sympathetic  demagogues  on  be- 
half of  the  Filipino,  who  is  picturesquely  represented 
as  already  knocking  at  our  door,  he  and  his  wife, 
or,  in  view  of  the  large  Mussulman  population,  his 
wives,  each  one  eager  to  express  political  acumen  by 
voting.  At  the  time  of  the  Spanish  War  the  pop- 
ulation of  the  Philippines  was  estimated  to  be  nine 
millions.  Since  that  time,  under  favoring  conditions 
such  as  the  suppression  of  head  hunting  and  slavery, 
we  are  promised  a  large  increase.  Naturally  the 
demagogue  favors  additions  to  our  ignorant  vote, 
whether  it  be  Filipino,  or  Russian,  or  Pole,  or  any 
other,  for  it  is  easily  manipulated.  It  may  well  be 
doubted,  however,  if  the  demagogue  is  in  this  matter 
the  patriotic  statesman  he  so  loudly  claims  to  be. 

The  statements  just  made  are  but  a  hint  or  sugges- 
tion of  the  vast  mass  of  facts  which  a  slight  amount  of 
consideration  will  array  before  each  of  us.  Even  this 
mere  hint  or  suggestion  may  well  give  us  pause — nay, 
more,  for  the  moment  we  begin  to  consider  the  mess 
of  pottage  for  which  we  are  exchanging  our  birth- 
right, it  becomes  revolting.  Our  whole  theory  and 
our  whole  practice  in  regard  to  naturalization  betray 
the  sacred  privileges  won  for  us  and  sealed  to  us  by 
the  lifelong  devotion,  the  hopes  and  aspirations,  the 
trials,  toil  and  suffering  of  all  of  our  beloved  and 
honored  dead. 

The  teachings  of  science,  the  records  of  history, 
the  warnings  of  common  sense,  our  own  bitter  pres- 
ent experience,  cry  out  unto  us.  There  is  no  ground 
on  which  utterly  alien  people,  alien  in  race,  in  lan- 
guage, in  customs,  mature  men,  mature  women,  set- 


CONCLUSION 

tied  in  their  foreign  ways  should  be  admitted  to  our 
citizenship.  There  is  no  line  of  reasoning  on  which 
such  procedure  can  be  justified.  It  is  monstrous.  We 
despise  the  wretched  individual  who  wantonly  wastes 
his  patrimony,  and  yet  among  their  equals  his  chil- 
dren may  redeem  their  fortune.  We  have  robbed 
and  are  robbing  our  children  of  their  heritage.  We 
dissipate  our  fortune  of  American  freedom  and  con- 
demn the  children  to  rub  shoulders  politically,  not 
with  their  mates,  but  with  strangers  and  foreigners 
whose  sympathies  are  with  each  other  and  not  with 
the  American-born. 

We  know  that  our  institutions  depend  on  the  intel- 
ligence of  each  citizen.  We  know  that  a  republic  is 
possible  only  to  men  of  homogeneous  race,  deter- 
mined and  united  in  intelligent  control  of  their  own 
affairs.  We  know  that  the  greater  the  common  im- 
pulse, the  greater  the  common  intelligence,  the  more 
community  of  action  and  individual  capacity  are  fos- 
tered, the  better,  the  more  splendid,  the  happier  will 
be  the  result.  We  know  that  to  sustain  us  in  the  efifort 
we  need  every  ounce  of  power  we  can  derive  from 
birth,  breeding,  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  loved 
and  honored  tradition,  the  memory  of  patient  self- 
sacrifice  in  upbuilding,  of  courageous  persistence 
in  calamity,  of  deliberate  purpose  in  statesmanship; 
and  we  know  that  such  things  cannot  be  taught,  they 
must  come  to  us  with  the  mother's  milk,  the  baby's 
lisping  questions,  and  grow  with  our  nerves  and 
thews  and  sinews  until  they  become  part  and  parcel 
of  our  very  being. 

No  naturalization  certificates  can  carry  with  them 

D63n 


CONCLUSION 

any  part  of  this,  our  heritage,  impalpable,  intangible, 
and  yet  more  worth  on  the  great  altar  of  our  country 
than  the  suffrage  of  untold  millions  of  the  ignorant 
and  debased.  Already,  seventy  years  ago,  de  Tocque- 
ville  noted  that  the  whole  country  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi was  settled  up,  was  teeming  with  vigorous  race 
life;  forests  and  prairies  were  giving  way  to  home- 
steads and  farms,  mines  were  worked,  factories  busy, 
railroads  and  steamboats  pushing  forward  rapid 
communication,  and  every  community  permeated 
with  full  knowledge  and  understanding  of  self- 
government  by  free  institutions.  There  were  then 
seventeen  millions  of  Americans  busily  engaged  in 
developing  our  resources.  Were  we  helpless  that  we 
needed  to  call  in  thirty  or  forty  million  strangers  to 
do  the  work?  Suppose  we  had  imported  two  hun- 
dred million  Russians,  Poles,  Syrians,  South  Italians, 
Greeks,  Negroes,  and  had  cut  down  every  suitable 
tree  for  lumber,  mined  every  ounce  of  coal  and  ore, 
and  exploited  the  land  down  to  its  rock  foundations, 
what  would  it  have  profited  us?  Lost  in  these  for- 
eign millions,  America  would  be  no  more. 

Americans,  the  Philistines  are  upon  us.  Rend  the 
fetters  with  which  we  have  bound  ourselves.  Noth- 
ing but  our  own  folly  stands  between  us  and  freedom 
from  alien  invasion.  Speak  the  word,  repeal  at  once 
the  naturalization  laws  which  corrupt  our  institu- 
tions and  destroy  us.  Repeal  them,  and  the  thing  is 
done.  Yet  have  we  left  fifty  millions,  the  greater  part 
of  whom  can  trace  descent  to  Colonial  days,  a  number 
ample  to  keep,  and  which  if  uncontaminated  by  for- 
eign blood  ever  will  keep,  America  for  Americans! 

D64: 


NOTES 


NOTES 

Page  i,Note  i. 

"The  life  of  individual  man  is  of  a  mixed  nature. 
In  part  he  submits  to  the  free-will  impulses  of 
himself  and  others — in  part  he  is  under  the  inex- 
orable dominion  of  law." 

"Intellectual  Development  of  Europe," 
Vol.  I,  p.  2. 

"All  mundane  events  are  the  results  of  the  opera- 
tion of  law.  Every  movement  in  the  skies  or  upon 
the  earth  proclaims  to  us  that  the  Universe  is  under 
government."  Jhe  same,  p.  4. 


"To  this  doctrine  of  the  control  of  physical  agen- 
cies over  organic  forms  I  acknowledge  no  excep- 
tions, not  even  in  the  case  of  man." 

The  same,  p.  9. 

"Too  commonly  do  we  believe  that  the  affairs  of 
men  are  determined  by  spontaneous  action  or  free 
will.  We  keep  that  overpowering  influence  which 
really  controls  them  in  the  background — nor  is  it 
until  the  close  of  our  days  that  we  discern  how 
great  is  the  illusion,  and  that  we  have  been  swim- 
ming, playing  and  struggling  in  a  stream  which,  in 

D67:] 


NOTES 

Spite  of  all  our  voluntary  motions,  has  silently  and 
resistlessly  borne  us  to  a  predetermined  shore." 

The  same,  p.  i6. 

*'But  in  thus  according  to  primordial  laws  and 
asserting  their  immutability,  universality  and  para- 
mount control  in  the  government  of  this  world, 
there  is  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  free  action  of 

"^^"-  The  same,  p.  20. 


"Not  without  difficulty  do  men  perceive  that 
there  is  nothing  inconsistent  betw^een  invariable 
law  and  endlessly  varying  phenomena,  and  that  it 
is  a  more  noble  view  of  the  government  of  this 
world  to  impute  its  order  to  a  penetrating  primi- 
tive wisdom  which  could  foresee  consequences 
throughout  a  future  eternity  and  provided  for  them 
in  the  original  plan  at  the  outset,  than  to  involve  the 
perpetual  intervention  of  an  ever  acting  spiritual 
agency  for  the  purpose  of  warding  ofif  misfortunes 
that  might  happen  and  setting  things  to  rights." 

The  same,  p.  96. 

"Human  progress  takes  place  under  an  unvary- 
ing law,  and  therefore  in  a  definite  way." 

The  same.  Vol.  II,  p.  181. 

"Kepler's  discoveries  .  .  .  constitute  a  most  im- 
portant step  to  the  establishment  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  government  of  the  world  by  law." 

The  same,  Vol.  II,  p.  259. 

D68: 


NOTES 

Page  i,  Note  2. 

"One  of  the  great  lessons  of  biology  is  that  man's 
physiological  nature  is  essentially  the  same  as  that 
of  the  lower  animals.  The  law  which  applies  uni- 
versally to  them  applies  also  to  him." 

"The  Evolution  of  the  Earth," 
Lull;  p.  157. 

"We  must,  however,  acknowledge,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  that  man,  with  all  his  noble  qualities,  with 
sympathy  which  feels  for  the  most  debased,  with 
benevolence  which  extends  not  only  to  other  men 
but  to  the  humblest  living  creature — with  his  God- 
like intellect  which  has  penetrated  into  the  move- 
ments and  constitution  of  the  solar  system — with 
all  these  exalted  powers,  man  still  bears  in  his  bod- 
ily frame  the  indelible  stamp  of  his  lowly  origin." 
"Descent  of  Man,"  Darwin ; 
Vol.  II,  Chap.  XXI,  p.  441. 

Page  i,  Note  3. 

"The  lot  of  man  will  be  ameliorated  and  his 
power  and  dignity  increased  in  proportion  as  he  is 
able  to  comprehend  the  mechanism  of  the  world, 
the  action  of  the  natural  laws,  and  to  apply  physical 
forces  to  his  use." 

"Intellectual  Development  of  Europe," 
Draper;  Vol.  II,  p.  147. 

Page  i,  Note  4. 

"The  intelligence  of  an  animal  is  in  a  general 
manner  proportional  to  the  relative  size  of  the  true 

1:169] 


NOTES 

brain  as  compared  with  the  sensory  ganglia.  .  .  . 
In  proportion  as  this  development  has  proceeded, 
the  intellectual  qualities  have  become  more  varied 
and  more  profound." 

"Intellectual  Development  of  Europe," 
Draper;  Vol.  II,  p.  340. 

"It  is  only  through  the  physical  that  the  meta- 
physical can  be  discovered." 

The  same,  Vol.  II,  p.  332. 

"Anatomically  we  find  no  provision  in  the  nerv- 
ous system  for  the  improvement  of  the  morale  save 
indirectly  through  the  intellectual — the  whole  aim 
of  development  being  for  the  sake  of  intelligence." 
The  same,  Vol.  II,  p.  347. 

Page  3,  Note. 

"We  may  with  correctness  use  the  observations 
made  on  animals  in  our  investigations  of  the  human 
system." 

"Intellectual  Development  of  Europe," 
Draper;  Vol.  II,  p.  341. 

Page  4,  Note  i. 

"From  .  .  .  animal  life  .  .  .  man  is  destined 
one  day  to  learn  what,  in  truth,  he  really  is." 

"Intellectual  Development  of  Europe," 
Draper;  Vol.  II,  p.  182. 

Page  4,  Note  2. 

"The  principle  of  selection  in  the  breeding  of 
animals  has  been  systematically  acknowledged  and 
followed  to  a  far  greater  extent  within  the  last  hun- 


NOTES 

dred  years  than  at  any  former  period,  and  a  corre- 
sponding result  has  been  gained,  but  it  would  be  a 
great  error  to  suppose,  as  we  shall  immediately  see, 
that  its  importance  was  not  recognized  and  acted 
on  during  the  most  ancient  times  and  by  (even) 
semi-civilized  people.  .  .  ^ 

*'In  a  well-known  passage  in  the  thirtieth  chapter 
of  Genesis  rules  were  given  for  influencing,  as  was 
then  thought  possible,  the  color  of  sheep.  ...  By 
the  time  of  David  the  fleece  was  likened  to  snow. 
Youatt,  who  had  discussed  all  the  passages  in  rela- 
tion to  breeding  in  the  Old  Testament,  concludes 
that  at  this  early  period  some  of  the  best  principles 
of  breeding  must  have  been  steadily  and  long  pur- 
sued. It  was  ordered,  according  to  Moses,  that 
'thou  shalt  not  let  thy  cattle  gender  with  a  diverse 
kind,'  but  mules  were  purchased,  so  that  at  this 
early  period  other  nations  must  have  crossed  the 
horse  and  ass.  It  is  said  that  Erichthonius,  some 
generations  before  the  Trojan  war,  had  many  brood 
mares  'which  by  his  care  and  judgment  in  the 
choice  of  stallions  produced  a  breed  of  horses  supe- 
rior to  any  in  the  surrounding  countries.'  Homer 
(Book  V)  speaks  of  yEneas's  horses  as  bred  from 
mares  which  were  put  to  the  steeds  of  Laomedon. 
Plato  in  his  'Republic'  says  to  Glaucus:  'I  see  that 
you  raise  at  your  house  a  great  many  dogs  for  the 
chase.  Do  you  take  care  about  breeding  and  pair- 
ing them?  Among  animals  of  good  blood  are  there 
not  always  some  which  are  superior  to  the  rest?' 
To  which  Glaucus  answers  in  the  aflirmative. 
Alexander  the   Great  selected   the   finest   Indian 

CI?!] 


NOTES 

cattle  to  send  to  Macedonia  to  improve  the  breed. 
According  to  Pliny,  King  Pyrrhus  had  an  espe- 
cially valuable  breed  of  oxen ;  and  he  did  not  suffer 
the  bulls  and  cows  to  come  together  till  four  years 
old.  Virgil,  in  his  Georgics  (Lib.  Ill),  gives  as 
strong  advice  as  any  modern  agriculturist  could  do, 
carefully  to  select  the  breeding  stock,  'to  note  the 
tribe,  the  lineage,  and  the  sire,  whom  to  reserve  for 
husband  of  the  herd';  to  brand  the  progeny;  to 
select  sheep  of  the  purest  white  and  to  examine  if 
their  tongues  are  swarthy.  .  .  .'  Columella  gives 
detailed  instructions  about  breeding  fowls:  'Let 
the  breeding  hens  therefore  be  of  a  choice  color,  a 
robust  body,  square  built,  full  breasted  with  large 
heads  and  upright  and  bright  red  combs.  Those 
are  believed  to  be  the  best  breed  which  have  five 
toes.'  According  to  Tacitus,  the  Celts  attended  to 
the  races  of  their  domestic  animals,  and  Caesar 
states  that  they  paid  high  prices  to  merchants  for 
fine  imported  horses. 

"Coming  down  the  stream  of  time,  we  may  be 
brief.  About  the  beginning  of  the  IX  century 
Charlemagne  expressly  ordered  his  officers  to  take 
great  care  of  his  stallions,  and  if  any  proved  bad  or 
old,  to  forewarn  him  in  good  time  before  they  were 
put  to  mares.  Even  in  a  country  so  little  civilized 
as  Ireland  during  the  IX  century  ...  it  would 
appear  .  .  .  that  animals  from  particular  places  or 
having  a  particular  character  were  valued.  .  .  . 
Athelstan,  in  930,  received  as  a  present  from  Ger- 
many, running  horses.  .  .  .  King  John  imported 
one  hundred  chosen  stallions  from  Flanders.    On 


NOTES 

June  1 6,  1305,  the  Prince  of  Wales  wrote  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  begging  for  the  loan  of 
any  choice  stallion  and  promising  its  return  at  the 
end  of  the  season.  ...  In  the  reign  of  Henry  VII 
and  VIII  it  was  ordered  that  the  magistrate  at 
Michaelmas  should  scour  the  heaths  and  commons 
and  destroy  all  mares  beneath  a  certain  size.  .  .  . 
The  effect  on  the  average  height  of  the  men  of 
France  of  the  destructive  wars  of  Napoleon,  by 
which  many  tall  men  were  killed,  the  short  ones 
being  left  to  be  the  fathers  of  families,  is  .  .  . 
that  since  Napoleon's  time  the  standard  for  the 
army  has  been  lowered  two  or  three  times." 
"Animals  and  Plants  Under  Domestication," 
Darwin;  Vol.  II,  p.  201  et  seq. 

Page  5,  Note. 

"But  from  the  tendency  to  reversion  .  .  . 
highly  bred  animals,  when  neglected,  soon  degen- 
erate." 

"Animals  and  Plants  Under  Domestication," 
Darwin;  Vol.  II,  p.  248. 

Page  10,  Note. 

"The  dog  offers  the  most  striking  instance  of 
changed  mental  attributes,  and  these  differences 
cannot  be  accounted  for  by  descent  from  distant 
wild  types — new  mental  characters  have  certainly 
often  been  acquired,  and  natural  ones  lost,  under 
domestication." 

"Animals  and  Plants  Under  Domestication," 
Darwin ;  Vol.  II,  p.  409. 

[1733 


NOTES 

Page  II,  Note. 

"Man  may  be  excused  for  feeling  some  pride  at 
having  risen  ...  to  the  very  summit  of  the  or- 
ganic scale;  and  the  fact  of  his  having  thus  risen, 
instead  of  having  been  aboriginally  placed  there, 
may  give  him  hope  for  a  still  higher  destiny  in  the 
distant  future." 

"Descent  of  Man,"  Darwin; 

Vol.  II,  Chapter  XXI,  p.  440. 
Page  16,  Note. 

"A  democracy  cannot  endure  unless  it  be  com- 
posed of  able  citizens;  therefore  it  must  in  self-de- 
fense withstand  the  free  introduction  of  degener- 
ate stock." 

"Memories,"  Galton;  p.  311. 
Page  18,  Note. 

"What  causes  these  racial  differences?  We  can- 
not answer  until  the  biologists  give  us  more  light 
on  the  origin  of  the  new  forms  called  mutants.  If 
it  be  asked,  however,  what  preserves  the  mutants 
and  thus  gives  rise  to  new  racial  qualities,  we  can 
answer  with  considerable  certainty.  Environment, 
by  means  of  natural  selection,  allows  some  types  to 
perpetuate  themselves  indefinitely,  while  it  rigidly 
exterminates  others." 

"Evolution  of  the  Earth," 

Lull;  p.  148. 
Page  19,  Note. 

"The  use  of  fire  has  been  traced  back  for  about 
seventy-five  thousand  years." 

"Man  of  the  Old  Stone  Age," 
Osborn;  p.  165. 


NOTES 


Page  26,  Note. 


The  figure  speaks  for  itself,  but  it  must  be  under- 
stood clearly  that  society  is  a  seething  mass,  rising 
and  falling  and  never  in  repose.    The  grandson  of 


Unskilled 


Defective 


GRAPH   REPRESENTING  STRATIFICATION  OF  SOCIETY 

a  man  of  genius  may  be  a  criminal  delinquent;  the 
son  of  a  proletarian  may  rise  to  a  position  of  emi- 
nence. Galton  estimates  the  total  number  of  men  of 
genius  in  all  history  at  four  hundred.  This,  if  the 
figure  is  to  represent  the  whole  body  of  mankind  in 
historic  times,  would  be  an  infinitesimal  speck  at 
the  point  X.  Moreover,  Galton  shows  that  an  im- 
portant fraction  of  these  men  of  genius  were  re- 

1:1753 


NOTES 

lated  by  blood.  He  reckons  illustrious  men  as  only 
one  in  a  million,  and,  speaking  loosely,  each  man 
is  supposed  to  represent  a  family  which  is  ordinar- 
ily reckoned  at  about  five.  An  illustrious  man 
would  therefore  be  one  man  in  five  million  of  the 
inhabitants.  Men  who  distinguish  themselves 
pretty  frequently,  either  by  purely  original  work 
or  as  leaders  of  opinion,  he  reckons  at  two  hundred 
fifty  in  a  million,  or,  as  explained  before,  five  mil- 
lion inhabitants.  The  world  owes  its  whole  ad- 
vancement to  those  who  are  above  the  line  P  Q.^ 
Below  the  line  P  Q  to  the  line  R  S  the  figure  in- 
cludes the  vast  majority — the  masses.  "They  are 
conservative — they  accept  life  as  they  find  it  and 
live  on  by  tradition  and  habit.  In  other  words,  the 
great  mass  of  any  society  lives  a  purely  instinctive 
life,  just  like  animals." 

"The  middle  class  in  Western  Europe  has  been 
formed  out  of  the  labor  class  within  seven  hundred 
years.  The  whole  middle  class,  therefore,  repre- 
sents the  successful  rise  of  the  serfs;  but  since  a  la- 
bor class  remains,  it  is  asserted  that  there  has  been 
no  change.  On  the  other  hand,  there  has  been  a 
movement  of  nobles  and  middle  class  grandees 
downward  into  the  labor  class  and  the  proletariat. 
It  is  asserted  that  representatives  of  great  mediaeval 
families  are  now  to  be  found  as  small  farmers, 
farm  laborers  or  tramps  in  modern  England. 

"The  masses  are  not  ...  at  the  base  of  a  social 
pyramid.  They  are  the  core  of  society.  The  con- 
servatism of  the  masses  is  due  to  inertia.    Change 

i"The  Men  of  Talent  Serve  the  Rest,"  Folkways,  p.  266. 

1:1763 


NOTES 

would  make  new  effort  necessary  to  win  rou- 
tine and  habit.  It  is  therefore  irksome.  The 
masses,  moreover,  have  not  the  power  to  reach  out 
after  'improvements'  or  to  plan  steps  of  change  by 
which  needs  might  be  better  satisfied. 

"Thinking    and    understanding    are    too    hard 
work."^  "Folkways,"  pp.  40,  42,  45,  166. 


In  speaking  of  the  mental  unrest  of  the  "Refor- 
mation," which,  in  the  sudden  fear  of  eternal  dam- 
nation, compelled  thought  in  all,  including  the  in- 
ert, Lecky  (Rationalism  in  Europe,  Vol.  I,  p.  64) 
describes  it  as  "a  period  of  extreme  suffering  and 
terror  .  .  .  and  in  consequence  the  most  painful 
of  all  transitions  through  which  the  human  intel- 
lect has  passed." 

Page  34,  Note. 

Breasted's  charming  narrative  is  followed.  Al- 
bert M.  Lythgoe  and  H.  E.  Winlock  have  most 
kindly  passed  upon  the  statement  of  historic  fact. 

Page  64,  Note. 

"The  decline  of  the  Greeks  in  the  three  centuries 
before  our  era  is  so  great  and  sudden  that  it  is  very 
difficult  to  understand  it.  The  best  estimate  of  the 
population  of  the  Peloponnesus  in  the  second  cen- 
tury B.  C.  puts  it  at  one  hundred  and  nine  per  square 
mile.  Yet  the  population  was  emigrating  and  pop- 
ulation was  restricted.  A  pair  would  have  but  one 
or  two  children.    The  cities  were  empty  and  the 

iSee  also  Memories,  Galton;  Chapter  XX,  p.  287. 


NOTES 

land  was  uncultivated.  There  was  neither  war  nor 
pestilence  to  account  for  this.  It  may  be  that  the 
land  was  exhausted.  There  must  have  been  a  loss 
of  economic  power  so  that  labor  was  unrewarded. 
The  inores  all  sank  together.  There  can  be  no 
achievement  in  the  struggle  for  existence  without 
an  adequate  force.  Our  civilization  is  built  on 
steam.  The  Greek  and  Roman  civilization  was 
built  on  slavery,  that  is,  on  an  aggregation  of  hu- 
man power.  The  result  produced  was,  at  first,  very 
great,  but  the  exploitation  of  men  entailed 
other  consequences  besides  quantities  of  useful 
products.  It  was  these  consequences  which 
issued  in  the  mores,  for,  in  a  society  built 
on  slavery  as  the  form  of  productive  in- 
dustry, all  the  mores,  obeying  the  strain  of  con- 
sistency, must  conform  to  that  as  the  chief  of  the 
folkways.  It  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  empire 
that  the  Romans  began  to  breed  slaves  because  wars 
no  longer  brought  in  new  supplies.  Sex  vice,  lazi- 
ness, decline  of  energy  and  enterprise,  cowardice 
and  contempt  for  labor  were  consequences  of  slav- 
ery, for  the  free.  The  system  operated,  in  both  the 
classical  states,  as  a  selection  against  the  superior 
elements  in  the  population.  The  efifect  was  inten- 
sified by  the  political  system.  The  city  became  an 
arena  of  political  struggle  for  the  goods  of  life 
which  it  was  a  shame  to  work  for.  Tyrannies  and 
democracies  alternated  with  each  other,  but  both 
alike  used  massacre  and  proscription,  and  both 
thought  it  policy  to  get  rid  of  troublesome  persons, 
that  is,  of  those  who  had  convictions  and  had  cour- 


NOTES 


age  to  avow  them.  Every  able  man  became  a  vic- 
tim of  terrorism,  exerted  by  idle  market-place  loaf- 
ers. The  abuse  of  democratic  methods  by  those- 
who-had-not  to  plunder  those-who-had  must  also 
have  had  much  to  do  with  the  decline  of  economic 
power,  and  with  the  general  decline  of  joy  in  life 
and  creative  energy.  It  would  also  make  marriage 
and  children  a  great  and  hopeless  burden.  Abor- 
tion and  sex  vice  both  directly  and  indirectly  les- 
sened population,  by  undermining  the  power  of  re- 
production, while  their  effect  to  destroy  all  virile 
virtues  could  not  fail  to  be  exerted.  It  was  another 
symptom  of  disease  in  the  mores  that  the  number  of 
males  in  the  Roman  Empire  greatly  exceeded  the 
number  of  females. 

"The  case  of  Sparta  is  especially  interesting  be- 
cause the  Spartan  mores  were  generally  admired 
and  envied  in  the  fourth  century  B.  C.  They  were 
very  artificial  and  arbitrary.  They  developed  into 
a  catastrophe.  The  population  declined  to  such  a 
point  that  it  was  like  group  suicide.  The  nation 
incased  itself  in  fossilized  mores  and  extremist  con- 
servatism, by  which  its  own  energies  were  crushed. 
The  institutions  produced  consequences  which 
were  grotesque  compared  with  that  which  had 
been  expected  from  them." 

"Folkways,"  Sumner;  p.  105. 
Page  66,  Note. 

"Antipater  changed  the  constitution  of  Athens 
(c.  322  B.C.)  by  restricting  the  franchise  to  those 
whose  property  amounted  to  more  than  2,000 
drachms   (£80  Sterling),  thus  depriving  twelve 

D79l 


NOTES 

thousand  of  citizenship  and  leaving  nine  thousand 

citizens.    To  many  of  these  disfranchised  citizens 

he  gave  lands  in  Thrace." 

"Greece,"  Bury;  Vol.  II,  p.  435. 
Page  151,  Note.  '         ^'  '  ^  -<■•>:> 

"The  extinction  of  the  Roman  Empire,  from 
v^hich  the  Germans  had  already  snatched  one  prov- 
ince after  another,  only  set  the  seal  to  the  inward 
decay  of  the  Latin  race  and  the  ancient  Roman 
traditions.  Even  the  Christian  religion,  w^hich 
had  everywhere  replaced  the  old  faith  in  the  gods, 
no  longer  avv^oke  any  life  in  the  people.  The  Gallic 
bishop  Salvian  casts  a  glance  over  the  moral  con- 
dition of  these  effete  but  now  Christianised 
nations,  and  pronounces  them  all  sunk  in  indolence 
and  vice;  only  in  the  Goths,  Vandals,  and  Franks, 
who  had  established  themselves  as  conquerors  in 
the  Roman  provinces,  does  he  find  purity  of  morals, 
vigour,  and  the  energy  of  youth.  'These,'  said  he, 
'wax  daily,  we  wane;  they  advance,  we  decay;  they 
bloom,  we  wither — and  shall  we  therefore  be  sur- 
prised if  God  gives  all  our  provinces  to  the  bar- 
barians, in  order  that  through  their  virtues  these 
lands  may  be  purified  from  the  crimes  of  the 
Romans?'  The  great  name  of  Roman,  ay,  even 
the  title  which  was  once  the  proudest  among  men, 
namely  'Roman  citizen,'  had  already  become 
contemptible. 

"The  Empire,  dying  of  the  decrepitude  of  age, 
was  finally  destroyed  by  the  greatest  conflict  of 
races  recorded  in  history.  Upon  its  ruins  Teuton- 
ism  established  itself,  bringing  fresh  blood  and 


NOTES 

spirit  into  the  Latin  race,  and  reconstituting  the 
Western  world  through  the  assertion  of  individual 
freedom.  The  overthrow  of  the  Roman  Empire 
was  in  reality  one  of  the  greatest  benefits  which 
mankind  ever  received.  Through  it  Europe  be- 
came reinvigorated,  and  from  out  of  the  chaos  of 
barbarism  a  many-sided  organism  arose.  .  .  . 
Amid  terrible  conflicts,  through  dark  and  dreary 
centuries,  was  accomplished  the  metamorphosis 
which  is  alike  the  grandest  drama  of  history  and 
the  most  noteworthy  triumph  of  the  ever-advan- 
cing, ever-developing  Genius  of  Man." 

"Rome  in  the  Middle  Ages,"  Gregorovius, 
Vol.  I,  p.  252,  citing  Salvian,  c.  476  A.D., 
"De  vero  judicio,"  Vol.  XXXII,  p.  53. 


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